Kohli looks for domestic bliss
The win against Australia in their backyard is something which everyone talks about, but for the Virat Kohl i-led Team India that is past, as they converge into a new beginning when they take on England in this own turf, here from Friday.
The hosts do have many reasons to cheer about, but the main being the return of their skip per, Kohli back in the fold against Joe Root' s England during a four-Test series starting Friday with both sides bidding to qualify f or the World Test Championship final.
FPJ takes us back about and fronts about the a nd two powerhouses, as international cricket returns to India after a year-long COVID-19 break and it couldn't have been bigger than a series against a world-class side which isled by a modern-day great in Joe Root.
It was 2012. Yes, that’s when India lost a Test series at home. And from Friday they will start another series at home when they take on England in the first of the four Test sat Chennai. It was England who last beat them at home when Alastair Cook led them to a surprise 2-1 win over MS Dhoni’s men. It will even be a greater surprise if Joe Root, for whom this will be 100 th Test, can achieve that against Virat Kohli’s men.
Root was in the dressing room as a debut ant when England achieved that big win after a gap of 28 years at Nagpur and he was also par t of the dressing room when they lost their last series in India by a margin of 40, the last loss coming at the same venue by a margin of an inning s and 75. Root will know why the two results were so dramatically oppo - site. In 2012 their spinners Graeme Swannn and Monty Pan es ar were better than the Indian spinners (Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha) while their bats man led by Cook and Kevin Pieter sen provided a master class on how to baton sub-continent tracks. What had also helped the visitors in 2012 was that they had spent almost a month in India and played a number of practice matches before the first ball was bowled in the Test series. Their op positions might not have been that good, but the time spent under the sun w as of help once the series started in Ahmedabad where Cook hit a ton in a lost cause.
But when they came her e in 2016 things were different. There was no Swann, Panesar, Pietersen, Ian B ell or Jonathan Trott. Barring the first Test at Rajkotw here for a brief moment they looked like in charge when India lost quick wickets in pursuit of 310, they were totally beaten to dust by the Indian batting might of Kohli, M Vijay Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul and Kar un Nair. Even off-spinner Jayant Yadav got a hundred! Ashwin and Ra vindra Jadeja picked 28 and 26 wickets respectively to catch England in the spin web.
The thing that makes England’ s task even tougher this time a round is that in the last f our years this In - di an team has taken the fear factor out of the equation, be it playing at home or away. In Australia recently they were down and out on several occasions. Be it 36 all-out at Adelaide, losing players to injuries or playing with injuries they have now set the bench high about the ability to never take a step back and followed the win-in-any condition philosophy as their mo to.
The only good thing for England has been that although they haven’ t played any practice games ahead of the T est, they did win a series against Sri Lanka just before coming here. Root will be hoping that Moeen Ali and Jack Leach can do a Swann and Panesar, while Jofra Archer can combine with Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson to stop the Indian batsman. He will also be wishing for runs from himself and Ben Stokes and hoping the likes of Rory Burns and Dom Sibley can play their roles.
As is the case with all sides rid - in go na win, who plays, or not, doesn’t seem to be the matter. At home T est Ma yank Ag arwal has two doubleton sand at on, but he will be sitting out of this Test ass Kohli wants to give along rope to the R ohit Shar ma-Shubman Gill opening pair. There is no Ja deja due to injury but any of Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Pa tel can take his place. Can they find a place f or Hardik Pandya in the playing XI? Who cares.