Virat Kohli's new India has an in-your-face daring to it. This new India goes for the jugular. This new India is expected to prevail on foreign lands. When Kohli leads his number-one-ranked Test team to take on the fifth-ranked England at Edgbaston on Wednesday, it will mark the start of what one hopes is a new high. But it's easier said than done.
In this battle, there is the mouth-watering prospect of seeing two of the finest batsmen of this generation―skippers Virat Kohli and Joe Root―showcase their batting prowess. Both teams appear similarly matched in terms of skill, with England having a slight edge in batting due to presence of two all-rounders in Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes. India's team balance takes a hit due to the absence of bowling all-rounder Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with Hardik Pandya bearing the sole burden of this role.
Team India's decision to cut short its four-day game against Essex and, instead, focus on more practice time in Edgbaston, Birmingham―the venue of the first Test match―is a well thought out decision. The visitors go into the five-match Test series with some serious thinking to do. The tour will be seen as the Virat Kohli-led top-ranked Test team's assertion as the best team in the world. It will also be Kohli's severest test as skipper and batsman thus far after the series against South Africa earlier this year.
On the other hand, England, in the throes of an unprecedented dry and hot summer, are buoyed after the ODI series win over India. They had sensed the odds slightly more tilted in the visitors' favour. The conditions suited India more. It boasted of a complete and strong bowling attack, which included, apart from a diverse pace attack, a lethal spin department with a certain left-arm wrist-spinning bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, who had spun a web of sorts over the English batsmen in the ODI series.
For India, the planning appeared in place months before. India's bowling was carefully nurtured and the key batsmen's work load meticulously managed months ahead of this series. Test players, especially batsman Cheteshwar Pujara or bowler Ishant Sharma, had spent time in England playing county cricket after missing out on contracts in the lucrative Indian Premier League. Injured pace spearheads Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have undoubtedly dented the Indian team management's plans. What has not helped is the lack of runs under the belt of the favoured opener Shikhar Dhawan and India's Test batting mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara in the run-up to the upcoming series.
The previous Test tour of England in 2014 is perhaps the one that India and Kohli would like to remember the least. The conditions were genuine―overcast, seaming and swinging―exposing the frailties of Indian batsmen. Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India lost the series 1-3 to England, having drawn the first Test at Nottingham, and winning the second at Lords. It was what England did to Kohli, then the upcoming star, that left a deep mark on the batsman. Exposing his weakness to play the away going delivery outside off stump, England had Kohli tied into knots. He managed to score a total of 134 runs in five Tests, managing a highest score of 39. This remains a rare blip on the growing Kohli's legend as one of the present time's batting great. It was James Anderson then. This time, England will hope the recalled wrist-spinner Adil Rashid would display his impressive bowling with the white ball against India.
A month and a half can make a huge difference in cricket. When Team India kicked off its England tour, India's Test bowling was expected to be their core strength. These plans appear to have gone a bit pear-shaped ahead of the Test series.
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar remarked that India was going into the series with “the most complete fast bowling attack in many, many years”. “In my assessment, this attack would go as one of the best.” According to him, Bhuvi could tilt the balance in India's favour with his all-round abilities.
But Bhuvi has returned home with a lower back injury after being hastened to play the final ODI against England where he aggravated the injury he had picked up during the IPL. He had missed a few IPL games, and was rested in the Afghanistan Test in Bengaluru as well so as to be able to recover fully for the England tour. His ability to swing the ball in conditions that will be ideal would be sorely missed in the Test series. While a review of his fitness will be done ahead of the fourth Test starting August 30, there is no guarantee that he would pass muster to take the workload straight away.
Jasprit Bumrah, recovering from a thumb injury, will be available only from the second Test onwards. Mohammed Shami, the other pace and swing bowler who has the ability to take wickets in a bunch, is coming back from a personal life crisis. All eyes will be on how much Hardik Pandya has improved from his debut Test series in South Africa, where he performed sub par after his memorable first Test counter attacking innings with the bat.
Will Kohli go with five bowlers, with two spinners, and if so, which spinners would he go for, is the million dollar question. Kohli has the option of the dashing wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant, but picking him ahead of veteran Dinesh Karthik in the first Test match will be a massive leap of faith.
What has not helped the team management's cause is Dhawan and Pujara's away performances with the bat. The top order, which is so heavily reliant on Kohli's batting heroics, needs to fire but barring opener Murali Vijay, the second opener remains unconfirmed. K.L. Rahul, picked as the third opener in Tests is breathing down Dhawan's neck. Pujara, too, is facing a run-drought like the English summer since he turned up for Yorkshire.
It remains to be seen whether Kohli would persist with his favoured right-left opening combo as well as retain Pujara at no.3 or go for a massive rejig at the top. Rahul appears to have adapted well to English conditions, but that is not a criteria that can sway skipper Kohli easily. His decisions regarding team selections will be put through a severe test yet again. It may not be easy to make any predictions for this series; but what can be ascertained is Virat Kohli's penchant to make the team combination unpredictable.