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A Preview to India's Tour of England by Syed Ahsan Ali


The Indian cricket team is in England for its first major Test series after the Tour of South Africa. It was a good show from them against Bangladesh in the longer version of the game recently, but the real test will start from here. England in England is never going to be easy even without their key player Freddie Flintoff. England’s Test series win against West Indies does not hold too much genuinely because of West Indies’ poor run especially in Test cricket.

So considering the performances of both teams in the recent past, both have been on an even keel because they did not get any stiff resistance which could have really told the true potential of both the sides. England must be heaving a sigh of relief after the news regarding Trescothick’s fitness and his will to come back. He is one player who can take the game to any opposition because of his run making pace. His absence in the Ashes 2006-07 made a whole lot of difference because at the top of the order, Strauss is not a free flowing batsman who can make some real quick runs, whereas India is relishing the regained form of Yuvraj and Sachin. Both looked ominous against the South Africans at Belfast.

Whenever Indians visit any overseas country for a Test Series, their bowlers get all kind of tips and suggestions about how to take twenty wickets in foreign conditions. Most keenly observant eyes feel that it is their bowling that has let them down when it comes to crunch situations. But if we look at their last 15 Test matches, we find a different trend. They won 4 and lost 4 out of their last 15 Tests and the rest were all drawn Tests. These 15 Tests mean 5 Test series against Pakistan, England, West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh. In all these Test series, India went from boil to blip except against West Indies and Bangladesh. And in the rest of the Test Series against Pakistan, England or South Africa, it was their batsmen who found them wanting, rather than their bowlers who are getting used to be meek scapegoats whether it was at Karachi, Mumbai, Cape Town or Durban their star-studded batting line up collapsed and left the window of opportunity opened for oppositions .

In English conditions, India have bowlers of Zaheer, Sreesanth and RP Singh’s pedigree who can pose some serious challenges to the English batting line-up, but their batsmen have to negotiate the competent English bowling to achieve scores in the vicinity of 400 runs. But figures clearly suggest that it is not the Indian bowling which has to get its act together, rather it is the Indian batting which has to look at its role in English conditions to make it an even contest.
 

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