England ready for 1,000th Test
INDIAN PACERS NEED TO STEP UP TO ALTER THE TREND IN COUNTRY
It will be England’s 1,000th Test. Nothing better illustrates their historic role as the missionaries who spread cricket. Australia, second in the number of Tests played, will not celebrate their 1,000th for another generation, assuming the format survives long enough for them to convert their current total of 812.
It has not, however, been glory all the way since March 1877. Starting with the inaugural Test in Melbourne, which England lost, the missionaries have not always practised what they have preached. Australia have long had the better of England — who have won 108 and lost 144 of their Tests — and probably always will; England have also lost more than they have won against West Indies (48-55) but seem destined to rectify that imbalance.
England overall have had the better of every other Test-playing country, though barely so in the case of Pakistan (25-21), whose unconventional style has often brought out the worst in them. And this summer’s fiveTest series offers the opportunity for England to increase the blue water between themselves and India, even though the tourists top the ICC Test rankings. Over the years, at home, England have beaten no two countries more emphatically than India and New Zealand.
India have only ever won six Tests in England. Their characteristic strength of spin bowling worked at the Oval in 1971, when Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, his right arm withered by polio, ran through England with his unique wrist-spin and India won their first Test match here; but it has not worked since, hence England’s emphatic lead of 30-6 against India at home, and 43-25 overall.
It was the swing of Kapil Dev and his medium-pacers that secured India’s two victories in 1986; the batting of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who all made monumental centuries, which won the Headingley Test of 2002; the swing of Zaheer Khan at Trent Bridge in 2007; and, in their win at Lord’s on their last tour in 2014, the swing of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in England’s first innings and the bouncers of Ishant Sharma in their second.
At several stages during the 20 and 50-over series earlier this month it looked as though Kuldeep Yadav could do a Chandrasekhar, but several England batsmen cracked the code: unless Kuldeep has kept a top-spinner under wraps, he turns one way or the other, without skidding straight on.
Patience and accuracy
There is also the difference between red-ball wrist-spin, where patience and accuracy are supreme virtues, and white-ball wrist-spin, where they scarcely matter: one which England’s selectors discounted when they selected Adil Rashid, to almost universal disapproval, for any number of reasons. But if England make a big first-innings total, Rashid could have his moments against India’s lower order.
Innumerable are the factors involved in a five-Test series: as Jos Buttler has said with the sapience which marks him out as a future captain: “A Test is a test of everything.”
But do India have the pace bowlers to dismiss England twice, and can their batsmen begin to emulate Dravid, who scored six hundreds in his 13 Tests and averaged 68 in England? Far too many of them have excelled in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but failed to cope with the moving ball outside the sub-continent. Virat Kohli is already missing two of his best pace bowlers: Kumar, who did so much to win the Lord’s Test of 2014 as an allrounder, and who would be a must for Edgbaston as a swing bowler, is not in the squad for the first three Tests, having gone home to nurse his back; and Jasprit Bumrah, who has a highly unusual action but was very effective in his three Tests in South Africa, has yet to recover from a broken thumb.
At least India have their fastest bowler, Umesh Yadav, to lead their attack, a fine outswing bowler who has yet to reap what he has sown in Test cricket: 103 wickets, at fewer than three per Test, at 34.9 each. But it is to England’s advantage that their opening pair are left-handers, Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings, and Umesh does not have a ball that swings — but only seams — away from them.
Edgbaston has always been England’s most successful venue, and the construction of a high pavilion stand appears to have only increased its tendency to favour swing. This weekend’s break in the hot weather will also favour the hosts.
England overall have had the better of every other Test-playing country, though barely so in the case of Pakistan (25-21).