England is about to embark on quite possibly the most daunting task in competitive sport – a Test tour of India.
The subcontinent juggernaut’s dominance on home soil is well-documented, with India winning 16 consecutive Test series since the start of 2013, suffering just three defeats in 47 matches.
India has only lost one Test series at home in the past 20 years — England’s 2-1 triumph in 2012, when the side was led by captain Alastair Cook and coach Andy Flower.
“What? No one has won a series since then?” Flower queried during a recent interview with The Times.
“Bloody hell.”
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The momentous 2012 tour, England’s first Test series win in the south Asian nation since 1984/85, remains an anomaly during an era where India was otherwise unstoppable in home conditions. Cook was at the peak of his powers, notching three centuries in four matches, while spinners Monty Panesar and Graham Swann wreaked havoc, taking 17 and 20 wickets respectively.
In contrast, a young Ravichandran Ashwin mustered 14 wickets at 52.64 while the legendary Sachin Tendulkar only managed one score over 13, with England’s bowlers successfully muzzling the Little Master.
It would take something special for Ben Stokes’ Bazballers to replicate the historic feat, especially considering the team’s positive approach to Test cricket has not been properly tested in spin-friendly conditions.
However, England has not lost a Test series since Brendon McCullum took charge in May 2022, winning 13 out of 18 matches under his guidance. Having rejected orthodoxy and committed to the Bazball philosophy, English cricket has been reinvigorated, becoming Test cricket’s most exciting yet unpredictable team.
Losing a Test match after enforcing the follow-on, declaring on day one of an Ashes series, whitewashing Pakistan on lifeless decks — England has achieved it all and more.
Stokes’ bizarre field settings and innovative tactics have been pivotal to the Bazball regime, while Rohit Sharma’s Indians will persist with a more traditional approach to Test cricket. The forthcoming clash of cultures and styles looms as one of the many intriguing storylines ahead of the eight-week campaign, which gets underway in Hyderabad on Thursday.
KP PROVIDES BLUEPRINT FOR BATTING IN INDIA
England’s run rate in Tests has soared to 4.82 since the start of the Bazball era, which provides a fair indication of how Stokes’ men will approach batting in India over the coming couple of months.
India’s spinners will eventually produce a delivery that’s got your name on it, so England’s batters will look to counter-attack and get runs on the board rather than survive, a strategy that has paid dividends for Australian vice-captain Travis Head over the past couple of years.
Attack is the best form of defence, a mentality that certainly worked for Kevin Pietersen in 2012 when he blasted 186 off 233 balls on a sharply-spinning surface in Mumbai. The former England batter danced down the wicket, repeatedly slapping the spinners through the off side, sometimes lofted and sometimes across the deck.
Rarely have India’s spinners been attacked in such a manner in their own backyard.
“KP played Bazball in India, he absolutely did,” Flower recalled.
However, the rest of England’s batters during the 2012 triumph were considerably more disciplined, with Cook, Nick Compton Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell each maintaining a series strike rate of less than 44.
For all the brash and bluster of Bazball, it is having a reliable defence that is the bedrock of Test batting, according to Pietersen.
The elegant right-hander explains that when defending in India, you must do so off the front foot with your bats ahead of the pads.
While preparing for the 2012 India tour, he would face Swann and Panesar in the nets without leg protection, forcing himself to rely on the bat.
“If you don’t have a defence, you can’t bat, it’s pretty simple,” Pietersen told The Times.
“Getting runs is just going to be a fluke without a defence.
“It’s actually not negative to defend. The ability to defend gives you the confidence to be able to attack.”
There’s no secret formula for batting against spin in India, but picking up length early is crucial.
Touring players have come unstuck when they get trapped on the crease, neither fully forward nor back. England’s batters should avoid planting their front foot too early or relying solely on hand-eye coordination, which proved Steve Smith’s downfall during last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
While facing Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, batters will look to either skip down the wicket or sink deep in their crease to counter the inconsistent spin and bounce and avoid the “danger zone”, where the ball pitches two to three metres from your bat.
‘I MIGHT USE MY REVERSE SWEEP AS A FORWARD DEFENCE’
India has been juicing up spinning decks for over a decade, and England doesn’t expect the Asian powerhouse to abandon its winning formula.
“I can’t see India not producing bunsens,” England assistant coach Jeetan Patel said earlier this month.
English media outlets will inevitably voice their disappointment when the SG ball starts turning sides on day one, but the players won’t be complaining – they knew the assignment before they signed up.
“The two teams are playing on the exact same wicket, so we just need to be as well equipped as we can,” England vice-captain Ollie Pope told The Guardian.
“If the pitches spin from ball one, we won’t be complaining. It’s about finding a method to combat it.”
Regardless, England’s brain trust will need to read the conditions better than they did in 2021; ahead of the pink-ball Test in Ahmedabad, the tourists picked four seamers on a deck that turned square from ball one.
To further negate the threat of spin, touring batters have often relied on horizontal shots and sweeping, both conventional and reverse. It backfired on the Australians during last year’s Delhi Test, most notably for wicketkeeper Alex Carey, but England opener Ben Duckett has warned he’ll resort to sweeping if there are early signs of turn.
“The more it spins, my bat is going to be extremely horizontal,” Duckett told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast last week.
“If it’s spinning sideways and they’ve got men all around the bat, I might use my reverse sweep as a forward defence.
“What I’m going to try and do is get rid of those guys around me, and hopefully then life will be a bit easier.”
However, sweeping is not the solution for batting in India. Root is the master of paddles and switch hits, but that might not apply to all of his teammates.
“People get panicked into using the sweep, and that’s a bad thing,” Flower explained.
“The sweep is not the answer to playing spin. If you are not a good sweeper, it is not essential.”
SPIN TO WIN
Recent history suggests that finger spinners will be vital to England’s success over the coming eight weeks. Axar Patel, Jadeja and Ashwin, the world’s No. 1 Test bowler, have mastered bowling in Indian conditions, while left-armed spinners Panesar and Steve O’Keefe proved a handful in 2012 and 2017 respectively.
Last year, Australian selectors rushed Matthew Kuhnemann to India after fellow left-armer Jadeja wreaked havoc in Nagpur, with the Queenslander taking a six-wicket haul in Indore.
England will therefore rely heavily on Jack Leach, whose absence was sorely felt during last year’s Ashes series. The 32-year-old has taken 45 wickets at 38.22 during the Bazball era, but it remains to be seen whether he can trouble India’s world-class batters.
For the series opener in Hyderabad, Leach will be accompanied by the uncapped Tom Hartley and teenager Rehan Ahmed, the lone wrist-spinner in England’s 17-player squad. Collectively, the trio have 36 Test caps, 35 of which belong to Leach.
It marks the first time England has only picked one strike seamer for a Test match since 1962, with Mark Wood the lone quick.
“I don’t think England have spinning matchwinners,” former England opener Compton told The Times.
“Leachy is not bowling at New Zealanders in England … he is bowling at Indians in India where there are 25,000 Leachys bowling every day in the nets.”
Root, who bowls part-time off-spin, will essentially serve as an all-rounder in India, replacing Stokes as the team’s fifth bowling option. The 33-year-old, who claimed 5-8 in Ahmedabad in 2021, averages 25.37 with the ball in India, compared to 48.90 outside of Asia.
“Rooty knows he’s going to bowl a lot more than on previous tours,” Patel said.
Meanwhile, leg-spinners have been less effective on India’s dust bowls, averaging 47.87 since the start of 2010 — even the late Shane Warne, the greatest wrist-spinner in Test history, had a modest record in Indian conditions, taking 34 wickets at 43.11.
It’s partly why Queensland leggie Mitchell Swepson wasn’t selected for last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with uncapped off-spinner Todd Murphy getting the nod instead.
Ahmed’s variations, which includes top-spinners and a well-disguised googly, give him a point of difference to the other tweakers in England’s touring party, while he’s also working on a Warne-inspired flipper.
“I’ve accepted it’s going to be hard,” Ahmed, who claimed seven wickets on Test debut in Pakistan in 2022, recently told The Telegraph.
“I’ll try my best. That’s all I can control. I’m just looking forward to playing Test cricket again.”
41YO ‘SUPERHUMAN’ STILL AN IMPORTANT COG
Although spinners are expected to dominate proceedings, England’s seamers have an important role to play in India as well. India’s fast bowlers have averaged less than 26 in home Tests over the past decade, while vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah concedes just 15.64 runs per wicket in his nation of birth.
“Don’t dismiss the Indian seamers and their attacking prowess, because they are genuinely outstanding performers,” Flower said.
“It’s not only about the spin contest.”
Reverse swing has time and time again proven a dangerous weapon in the subcontinent, which is where veteran bowler James Anderson and fellow quick Ollie Robinson come to the fore.
Despite an underwhelming Ashes campaign, Anderson boasts an impressive record in India, taking 34 wickets at 29.32. The Lancashire swing maestro, who has spent the past off-season tinkering with his run-up, celebrates his 42nd birthday this year, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
“Jimmy is superhuman,” former England bowler Steven Finn said recently.
“He has got the skills and has got the experience, so I anticipate when he plays, he’ll be an important cog.”
INDIA VS ENGLAND FIXTURES
1st Test – January 25–29, Hyderabad
2nd Test – February 2–6, Visakhapatnam
3rd Test – February 15–19, Rajkot
4th Test – February 23-27, Ranchi
5th Test – March 7–11, Dharamsala
INDIA SQUAD (first two Tests)
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Avesh Khan
ENGLAND SQUAD
Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Shoaib Bashir, Dan Lawrence, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood
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