Despite hiccups at Adelaide and then in the World Test Championship final, Team India have been dominant in Test matches in the last two years.
It's not often that you play one country twice in the Test matches in the same year but the demands of FTPs and the World Test Championship (WTC) have rendered India and England face each other twice this year over nine Tests. Four took place earlier this year, on the turners, dustbowls of Chennai and Ahmedabad, or whatever they were called, now the remaining five will be happening at the lush green gardens. But since it's the latter half of the English summer, most of them could look like grazed meadows as the series progresses and behave a little differently -- assist the spinners a little more, than it usually does in England.
India have been pretty dominant in the Test matches in the last few years, more so since the start of 2018 when they found a pace battery that could run an opposition ragged and had different players stand up for them with the bat, whether it was gutsy Cheteshwar Pujara, or the crisis man Ajinkya Rahane or the high-flying Rishabh Pant, who found an upsurge Down Under, and obviously the skipper Virat Kohli, who turned around his fortunes in England in the same year after a horrendous outing in 2014.
The enviable bowling attack
The previous Indian Test teams always struggled overseas, especially in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries because of the lack of fast bowlers and the lack of pace bowling that was required to take 20 wickets. However, that now not only has been brushed under the carpet but the carpet has completely been changed.
Ishant Sharma, having taken 300 wickets and playing over 100 Test matches has been the most improved bowler for India across formats and his resurgence began in 2014 at the Lord's under MS Dhoni, where his seven-wicket haul led to the visitors winning their only match of the series. Then he was joined by the likes of Mohammed Shami, who just enjoys eating oppositions for fun in the second innings especially, with that killer seam presentation and Jasprit Bumrah, the skipper's go-to guy despite him looking off-colour in the WTC final.
Then you have the emerging Mohammed Siraj, the newest entry into the fold of bowling all-rounders Shardul Thakur, the omnipresent (at least in squads, if not in playing XIs) Umesh Yadav and the two genuine spinning all-rounder in Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin and a backup in Axar Patel, who had a ball playing in Chennai and Ahemdabad taking 27 wickets in just three matches, that's a start to your Test career.
The batting problems
Then you ask, with such a brilliant bowling attack and England's brittle batting order, why India are not still the clear favourites ahead of the five-match series in the Three Lions' den? Mostly because of the batting issues and probably at every single number, which was the cause of undoing in all their last five losses in the format - WTC final against New Zealand, the middle-order no-show against England after Joe Root masterclass in Chennai in the first Test, at Adelaide against Australia last year and the two-match series at the start of the last year in and against New Zealand, where the Indian team just didn't show up.
Injuries don't help of course as the first-choice opener in Shubman Gill has returned home, Mayank Agarwal was hit on the head in the training and he will not be taking part in the first Test, which leaves India with two options either go with the stability of Hanuma Vihari at the top, who will be raring to go after that resilient knock in Sydney or the flamboyance of KL Rahul, who is fresh from the 100 in the warm-up game.
However, the problem is not who will play, the more important question is will they be able to play against the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, having some bizarre number of wickets in total, 1140 to be exact. Rohit Sharma, the other regular opener has his challenges against the moving ball and they will have to blunt the new ball otherwise, it is Cheteshwar Pujara, who is in the middle early and has to face the same wrath. Pujara averages 38 in SENA countries, but if you leave Australia out of it, the average comes down several notches to 27.
I am not saying, we don't have capable batsmen in English conditions, Rahane's century at Lord's and Kohli's dream run during the last tour are perfect examples but they don't ooze the same amount of confidence against the wobbly seam. If the top three are able to get the team over 150 or even 100, the strength of four, five, six and then two all-rounders can take care of the rest.
But if the visitors are 20-3, then the middle order has to do the job of pedalling rather than sailing.
The tale of two tails
Another problem India have had over the years is bowling out the tail and their tail falling like nine pins. This was one of the major reasons in the loss of the WTC final as well as there was a 50-run difference between the runs scored after losing six wickets between the two teams in the first innings and that was the difference between a 140 and a 190-200, that could have been match-winning or even a score where they could have held New Zealand on a draw.
On the last tour, which India lost 4-1, all-rounder Sam Curran proved to be their nemesis, of course with the ball but more importantly and decisively with the bat. That's why the presence of a Shardul Thakur provides a tinge of hope to India's tail, but they still have to overcome the woes of bowling the tail out as it could prove to be a difference again.
The pedigree and the opportunity
Ideally, I think India has a great chance of upsetting the apple cart and break the 14-year long fast and win a series against England on their home soil, purely because of the pedigree that they have. If they didn't have that pedigree they wouldn't have been able to beat Aussies twice on their home soil in three years or wouldn't have been able to breach their fortress 'Gabbatoire' with the newbies.
If they can overcome their batting woes even 5 out of 10 times, they would be in a position to beat the England side, who also have their own batting problems. Joe Root's incredible run at the start of this year in Sri Lanka and India has suddenly faded away and he quickly needs to get back to run-scoring form as the likes of Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence have shown glimpses. Glimpses have been just enough for them to keep their place in the side, but as the two-match series against New Zealand proved, they won't be enough to win them the games.
Yes, they are missing Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer, which would certainly hit their chances, but that's when you make it count. The Sirajs, the Washington Sundars, and the Thakurs did it for India when they were missing probably 7 of their first-choice players in Australia, it's now time for the Crawleys, the Popes and the Lawrences to do it at home in a one and a half month tussle against the No 2 side in the world, which is on the hunt for a second successive overseas Test series victory.
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