Favourites’ tag and injuries will put thepressureon India, too
Chris Stocks discovers that although England will be outsiders for the series, the home camp has its own problems
There’s no doubt India are up for the fivematch series against England, but as bad a shape as Alastair Cook’s side look in before next week’s first Test at Rajkot the hosts are not having everything their own way, either.
Pressure does strange things to people and there’s no doubt it has been ratcheted up on Virat Kohli’s team by a country who expect nothing less than English humiliation over the coming weeks.
Star Sports has been showing highlights of the 2012 series, which you’ll no doubt remember England won during Cook’s first assignment as full-time Test captain, on a loop for the past few days.
There’s a fair chance England’s players, who arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday evening, have caught some of the action in their hotel rooms.
It actually wouldn’t be a bad thing, especially with the Kolkata Test being replayed particularly heavily these past 24 hours.
It’s funny what four years does to the memory but the sight of Cook smacking Ravichandran Ashwin for two huge sixes on his way to a match-winning innings of 190 would be a timely reminder that England do not necessarily have to be lambs to the slaughter.
During every commercial break on Star there is also an emotive advertisement showing footage from India’s past three series defeats against England in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
As the flashback cuts to a close-up of Kohli’s dejected face following defeat at The Oval two years ago the screen goes black and is filled with the slogan – #scoretosettle.
India feel that it is payback time and England’s humiliating defeat by Bangladesh on Sunday has ratcheted up expectations further.
If you can’t beat the world’s No. 9 side over a two-Test series then what chance over five matches against the No1-ranked team?
However, India’s build-up to next Wednesday’s series opener in Rajkot has not exactly gone smoothly.
Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will lead their spin attack and Ishant Sharma was also named in a 15-man squad for the first two Tests this week.
Four key players will be missing, though, including the supreme all-round talents of Rohit Sharma, who has been ruled out of all five Tests after sustaining a thigh injury in the recently-concluded one-day series against New Zealand.
First-choice openers Shikhar Dhawan, who has fractured a thumb,
Four key players will be missing, including the supreme all-round talents of Rohit Sharma and first choice openers Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul
and KL Rahul, out with a hamstring injury, are also missing for the first two Tests at least.
Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also been overlooked as he has not played any first-class cricket since recovering from a hamstring injury.
With both openers missing it means 35-year-old Gautam Gambhir, a batsman who averaged six in his last series against England, will remain after filling in for the final two Tests against New Zealand last month.
Rohit’s place in the middle order is likely to be taken by a Test debutant in the form of Hardik Pandya, whose batting average in first-class cricket stands at just 27.96.
That means numbers three, four and five in India’s top six will be absolutely crucial and in Cheteshwar Pujara,Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane there are three men who are more than capable of damaging England.
Cook’s men, though, are not without hope. The media in India are talking a confident game, and with every reason despite this week’s injury setbacks.
Yet, perhaps, overconfidence in the home camp may play into their hands.
Chief selector MSK Prasad is already talking about rotation, with the prospect of five Tests in six weeks a daunting challenge for both sides.
Prasad said:“We are looking at the workload management and that is where the rotation policy comes in.We have quite a few players ready right now. If you look at domestic cricket, we have quite a few players who are doing really well.”
India will hope to rotate from a position of strength after winning the first two Tests.
But if England, who rested Stuart Broad for the Dhaka Test and paid the price, can stay in the series until then they will have a chance of taking advantage of any Indian fatigue or further injuries.
In the background to all the build-up of this eagerly-anticipated Test series, is the dark cloud overshadowing the whole of Indian cricket right now – the Lodha Committee investigation into the inner workings of the BCCI.
India’s governing body have threatened to pull the plug on their international summer – which also includes a tour by Australia next year – in response to having their accounts frozen by the country’s Supreme Court.
The panel chaired by judge RM Lodha this week assured the BCCI and Indian fans “cricket will not suffer”.
But with the BCCI recently writing to the panel to ask who is going to pay for the staging of the England Test series, it could all provide an off-the-field distraction that Kohli and his team could really do without.