England's Tour Of India 2024: Can Three Lions Vanquish Ghosts Of Spin Past Against High-Flying Men In Blue?

India’s five-match Test series against England is set to commence January 25 onwards in Hyderabad and will be the home side’s third outing in the ongoing WTC cycle. India had earlier defeated West Indies 1-0 in a two-match series and held South Africa to a 1-1 draw.

Former Indian captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has expressed concerns about the absence of Indian stars from the ongoing Ranji Trophy matches, questioning whether participating in these red ball games would not have been better preparation for the Test series, than playing the Afghanistan T-20 series.

Apart from KL Rahul, who scored a fine century in the first Test at Centurion, and Virat Kohli, who batted as well as ever, the other Indian batters did not quite live up to their reputation in the four innings they played in South Africa.

England have been similarly criticised by their former players for choosing to do their preparatory camp for the series at  Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, and coming to India just three days prior to the commencement of the contest. Their contention is that the team needs more time on slow, turning Indian wickets to get used to the conditions, and may have potentially done themselves a disservice by choosing to stay away and spend that time in a different environment.

Interestingly, this outing for England comes almost immediately after a disastrous ICC Cricket World Cup campaign in India two months ago, where they had similarly come off a rest, instead of playing practice matches before the Tournament, like the other teams did.

But the fact remains that with multiple Indian Premier Leagues and the World Cups behind them, most England cricketers are, by now, no strangers to the pitches in India, even if the Test Match wickets are likely to be different from those encountered before in white ball cricket.

In the recent past India has been well-nigh unstoppable at home and Test Matches have rarely gone the distance, with visiting teams looking all at sea against the Indian spinners bowling in favourable conditions.

This was also the case on England’s last tour of India in early 2021, when they lost 1-3 by big margins to a dominant Indian side.  There are still quite a few names from that tour in the present England side and that experience may well conjure up a sense of Deja Vu in their minds.

One of the biggest factors behind India’s invincible run at home since 2013, has been the continued success of the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. They have played 49 Tests together till date, picking up a total of 500 wickets. 40 of those matches were played at home, where Ashwin and Jadeja reaped a hefty 428 wickets, contributing heavily to India’s dominance at home.

Ashwin, with his vast experience and variety, is closing in on 500 Test wickets in a phenomenal career and promises to be a real handful on Indian wickets as always. His ‘Doosra’ is hard to spot as ever, while his partners-in-trade, the two left armers Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav have also had their own measure of significant success, particularly against England in the past.

Axar Patel, especially, was unstoppable in the last  England series here, running through the England side like a knife cutting through butter, picking up fifers at will.

Ironically, many of his dismissals in that series came through the one that did not turn and skidded through straight on. And Jadeja did the same on many a occasion. This probably is an indication of the fact that the spectre of turn in the mind of the batter is probably more lethal than the actual turn itself from the track.

This scenario could well be repeated again, unless England can find a way to counter it effectively, on the ground, and most importantly, in their minds. A cool head and solid technique remains the best bet for the English batters under the circumstances.

Invariably, there will be concerns and a  lot of hue and cry about the ball turning from day one, raised by the English Media and former players. But, Test Matches have ended in two days in the recent past in different parts of the world, on pitches heavily loaded in favour of pacers and it’s time to get real on this. Countries will play on their home advantage and it’s only natural that they should. And as the great Clive Lloyd said in a recent interview, playing at the elite level, international cricketers should be able to deal with such things. Rohit Sharma said much the same thing when he claimed that he had no complaints against the pitch at Newlands, but teams should similarly not complain about pitches in India that turned.

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The last two test matches that England have won in India, were set up by big hundreds scored by two of their premier middle-order batsmen, Kevin Pietersen and Joe Root, respectively, both of whom negated India’s spin advantage by some solid technique and judicious strokeplay.

Bazball, England’s current style of attacking cricket in recent Test matches, has brought them much success in the Red Ball format. But it hasn’t really been tested on slow, turning Indian pitches yet, although they met with considerable success with it in Pakistan, in December 2022.

Whether the tactics will work here in India however, remains to be seen.

Even if we were to see a revision to the more traditional Test match batting style of grafting for runs till you’re well settled before opening out and playing shots, it would have to be based on solid technique, good, intelligent use of the feet and depth of the batting crease, and of course, good shot selection and patience.

The last time around many of the English batters were guilty of falling short on many of these counts, remaining fixed mentally on employing the sweep shot, which has been England‘s preferred way of countering spin over the years. It has worked well at times, especially for players like Kevin Pietersen and Graham Gooch, but has also let down many an English batsman when employed with blind premeditation.  

So, it will have to be an intelligent combination of all available options instead of a one-track focus on a particular shot or style of play, that might work better in these circumstances.

England vice-captain Ollie Pope, who had a forgettable series the last time around, however, insists that they are much better prepared this time and the mindset itself is different.

And that the Camp at Abu Dhabi is part of a deliberate strategy to retain that positivity, going into the series. He also adds that they will not complain even if the wicket turns from day 1, and instead look to find ways to effectively deal with it.

England are also bringing over a bunch of untried spinners, with the experienced Jack Leach making a comeback from a stress fracture, playing alongside two raw youngsters, looking to make their mark in International cricket. Rehan Ahmed, the youngest England cricketer to play Test Cricket and very much a child prodigy with his leg spin googly bowling, was once rated highly as a young boy bowling at the nets, by no less than the legendary Shane Warne, who predicted that he would be playing for England by the time he was 17 - a prediction that came to pass, almost. He has made a fine start to his Test Career with a fifer on Test Debut against Pakistan at 18 years of age and will be looking to build on that.

All in all, therefore, this has all the makings of a very interesting series with a number of permutations and combinations that can be tried out over the five test matches. Quite a few young batters will be looking at an opportunity to break into the Indian top order, none more so than 26-year-old Sarfaraz Khan of Mumbai, who has been so prolific with his consistent scores in domestic cricket over the last few years. Surely he deserves a look in at some point of time in this series. The wicket-keeping position too seems fairly open at this point, with Rishabh Pant yet to return to competitive cricket. On turning tracks where spinners will bowl long spells, the best available keeper needs to be picked for Test matches and KL Rahul has been found wanting on a few occasions in that area. You don’t want a chance to go begging against a good batting side at the Test level, simply because your ‘keeper is mainly a batsman who has had the keeping role thrust upon him and is not equipped enough to handle good spinners on spinning tracks.

It is not only unfair to him, but can also mean the difference between winning and losing a match. KS Bharath, the other specialist keeper is just coming off a good century against the England Lions and it will be interesting to see how he shapes up in this series. This could well be his last chance as well.

As such, the portents are all good for an absorbing duel, spread over five test matches ahead, with its associated ramifications on the World Test Championship table.

Much will depend on how the English batters keep their heads and overcome their distrust of Indian pitches. From the Indian point of view, this is the time to simultaneously consolidate and nurture and set themselves up for yet another crack at the WTC title, and at the same time, build up the nucleus of a new side for the years ahead.  

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author. The author is a veteran Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force, who has played Ranji Trophy for Services.