One is a team in transition, while the other is a team that has redefined Test cricket.
With a new and young captain in Shubman Gill, India will be determined to make a positive start to the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series, which begins today at Headingley. It won’t be an easy task, as only three Indian teams – under Ajit Wadekar in 1971, Kapil Dev in 1986 and Rahul Dravid in 2007 – have managed to win a Test series in England.
Up against them will be an aggressive English side led by Ben Stokes, which has broken all conventions of batting in Test cricket with their ‘Bazball’ approach, thanks to coach Brendon McCullum.
It will be as much a test for the Indian bowlers, as it will be for their batters, as India take the field without veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, all of who have retired. And that’s why former India great Sachin Tendulkar has a word of advice for the visitors.
"You need to respect the conditions and bat accordingly,” Tendulkar, who has played five Test series in England, advised Indian batters in an interview with PTI. “Because when you respect conditions, you have that flexibility in your thought process, in your head. It cannot be one-way traffic that 'my game is like this and I am going to play like this only'.
“If one is adamant and doesn't believe in changing too many things irrespective of conditions, then sometimes you end up paying a heavy price for that. So my message would be to respect conditions. You will know when to attack and when to defend," Tendulkar said.
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The former India skipper backed the Indian batters, including Karun Nair and B. Sai Sudharsan, to come good in England, as most of them have played county cricket if not international cricket in this part of the world.
“I don't think it will be something that they have never been exposed to. They have been exposed to these conditions. They have played in South Africa. They have played in New Zealand. They have played in Australia. And all these experiences teaches you a lot. You put those experiences together and put them to practice. I think they will be okay," Tendulkar said.
England (playing XI):
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir.
India (Squad):
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.
