TOUGHEST TEST
Sharp spin and uncharted territories will push Bazball to limit in India
IT is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, assignment in cricket. England’s five-Test tour of India will be the ultimate test of Bazball.
Yes, we heard that at the end of 2022 when a tour of Pakistan was billed as the biggest examination yet of the all- action cricket under Ben Stokes (right) and Brendon McCullum that is rewriting the Test rulebook. England, thrillingly, made history by winning that series 3-0.
Then we were told, mainly by Australians, that Bazball could not survive the cut and thrust of an Ashes series. But after somehow contriving to lose the first two Tests last summer, England made all the running and provided all the entertainment in a 2-2 draw.
Don’t tell those Australians, who still can’t get their heads around England’s ‘ moral’ victory, but Stokes really should have led his side to a 4-1 win last summer — and an epic series only ended in Pat Cummins’ side retaining the urn because of biblical rain at Old Trafford.
But India is different. Not least because the hosts seem able to provide sharply spinning conditions to suit their attack at will, as they did three years ago when they crushed Joe Root’s England 3-1 after the shock of losing the first Test of a Covid-affected series.
Just look at history. Since England’s famous 2-1 victory in 2012, itself their first series win against the most powerful country in cricket in their own conditions since 1984-85, they have won just one of nine Tests in India, losing seven and drawing the other one.
And this time their task will be made even harder because of the uncertainty of venturing into the unknown as the Indian Board, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to stage stag all five Tests outside of the traditional cricketing hubs of o Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Chennai Delhi and Bangalore. Instead, England will be playing in three c cities where they have never played play a Test and in two where they have taken part in just one, making maki it near impossible for them to know what awaits them. Apart Ap from the fact it will probably proba spin from day one at each venue. ven
That is why w Steve Harmison had a valid poin point when he said, in a passionate sionate rant ran on talk SPORT, that it is ‘madnes madness’ for England to arrive in India just ju three days before the first Test in Hyderabad on January 25, as they still plan to do.
They will surely, Harmison argues, be undercooked and are not giving themselves the best chance of pulling off what would be a huge upset and winning the series.
England’s counter-argument is that, in an 11-day training camp they are undertaking in Abu Dhabi before arriving in Hyderabad, they will have all the preparation they need and can recreate both the spinning conditions and weather that will await them in India.
The proof will be in pitches that will be anything but puddings in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamshala but at least this generation of England cricketers have far more experience of India because of their involvement in the IPL.
Test cricket is different and it was on the 2016 tour that England played their only two Tests at venues included on this trip. They lost by 246 runs in ‘Vizag’ with a spin attack comprising Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari and Root, and drew in Rajkot in a Test notable for a composed and classy debut by Haseeb Hameed.
I was at both matches and remember two well-appointed grounds, Visakhapatnam being a lively city with plenty of beaches on the east coast and Rajkot notable for a media centre based on Lord’s and a solar-powered stadium.
England also took part in the first ever one- day internationals to be held in Ranchi and Dharamshala, both in 2013 on the whiteball leg of their history-making Test tour. In Ranchi, I remember a city obsessed with local hero MS Dhoni, and in Dharamshala one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world, nestled in the Himalayas.
A personal memory from Ranchi involves a man from the Times — and not the immediately recognisable one, in former England captain Mike Atherton — being mobbed outside the India team hotel by crowds who had never seen their heroes in the flesh before and were almost as excited by the sight of an English cricket writer as they were Dhoni.
Then there was spectacular Dharamshala, where England returned for last year’s World Cup,
a venue so new to international cricket in 2013 that it could not cope with the demand for internet and the wifi was virtually non-existent.
So frustrated did your correspondent get about this that, near deadline time and unable to get a connection to file my match report, I shouted in desperation ‘IT, IT’ in the hope of finding someone who could help.
This seemed to do the trick, as a very helpful local ran off seemingly in recognition of my predicament. I was expecting him to return with a technician but instead he proudly presented me with a sandwich. To my shame, at getting so hot under the collar in such beautiful surroundings, he thought I had been demanding ‘high tea’.
Not all the memories of covering three full tours of India as Mail Sport cricket correspondent — and one watching TV coverage from my sofa in Chingford when Covid kept us away — are light-hearted ones.
There was certainly plenty of tension and tragedy on my first full trip in 2008 when a terrorist attack struck the majestic Taj Hotel in Mumbai just a few weeks after we had all been staying there and a week before we were due to return and stay at that very hotel.
England were playing a one- day international in Cuttack at the time but after emergency talks it was decided everyone should go home while the dust settled on the terrible incident. We were eventually to return to India via a holding camp in Abu Dhabi where the rearranged Test in Chennai was one of the most emotional I can remember.
Not least when Mumbai’s — and the world’s — finest, Sachin Tendulkar, made an unbeaten century to take India to their target of 387 only four wickets down.
It was an outcome written in the stars and I remember being determined in a chaotic press conference afterwards to make sure I asked Sachin a question because it just felt like we were in the presence of greatness after an extraordinary turn of events.
I finally got my question in after having my hand in the air for what seemed like an eternity like a schoolboy swot keenly trying to gain the teacher’s attention, which was a very satisfying moment. I can’t remember what the question was but I had spoken to the master.
Hyderabad will be the only new venue for me this time but it is a city that Jonny Bairstow enjoyed during his time with Sunrisers in the IPL and one that holds a particularly happy memory for England’s coach. It was there that McCullum made 225 in New Zealand’s visit in 2010, which remains the biggest individual Test score at the ground.
How McCullum would like one of his charges to repeat that feat — or indeed Tendulkar’s in Chennai in 2008 — in the first Test later this month and get England off to the best possible start to what could be a momentous series. It is one they must embrace if it really is to become Bazball’s biggest triumph.