The England cricket team led by Captain Alastair Cook arrived in South Mumbai for their five-Test series with the host team, set to commence at Rajkot on November 9. The tourists are scheduled to play at the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium on November 5. Other games are set to be played in Vishakhapatnam (Nov 17-21), Mohali (Nov 26-30), Mumbai (Dec 8-12), and Chennai (Dec 16-20).
Indian selectors meanwhile, met in Mumbai to pick the Test squad for the series. While India won the recent series against New Zealand at home, and another against West Indies, earlier, England is expected to be a far tougher opposition. They had got the better of India in its own backyard in 2012, winning the set 2-1. With a mind to settle scores, the selectors and the BCCI seemed to have analysed England's tough series in Bangladesh last month. Mindful that the England batsmen would find it difficult to struggle against spin, the selection committee headed by MSK Prasad, has chosen to field an experienced spin attack, with Ravichandran Ashwin, as the undoubted leader.
The team includes three players from Gujarat; Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara from Rajkot, and Hardik Pandya from Vadodara. Jadeja is expected to be a handful for the tourists. He bowls his brisk left-arm spin at the right pace and has the variations to probe and torment batsmen. A handy lower middle order batsman, he could prove useful to the side. Pandya was named as Rohit Sharma's replacement who currently battles an injury. And Pujara has been trusted to play his role at number three. The Indian team will be led by Virat Kohli, with Ajinkya Rahane yet again named his deputy. Wriddhiman Saha will be the specialist wicket-keeper.
The spin department will be led by the prolific duo of R Ashwin and Jadeja. Amit Mishra has been picked as the third spinner while Jayant Yadav will play as the fourth spinner. In the pace department, Ishant Sharma returns after battling chickengunya which ruled him out against New Zealand. He will be assisted by Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. The committee however, could have taken the wrong call with Yuvraj Singh. The hard-hitting left-hander could have come in handy at number six against the likes of left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari and leg-spinner Adil Rashid. He could also have slammed them with the spin or even gone after the off-spinners Moen Ali and Gareth Batty on the relatively small Indian grounds.
England's struggle to continue in India: Hoggard
The England team might not have the best preparartion in the lead-up to the series. While they managed to win the first Test against Bangladesh by a petty 22 runs, they saw humiliating defeat in the second and final which has effectively demoralised the visitors. England lost all 10 wickets for 64 runs in 135 balls as their batsmen were humiliated by Bangladesh’s spinners, who bowled them out in less than a session to win the second Test by 108 runs.
Before reaching India, Captain Alastair Cook had stated that his team could be psychologically scarred if they lose the series. "It could (have a damaging effect) and this is when we need to really stay strong as a group. When stuff like this happens, especially away from home – when you’re at home, you can get away from it for a couple of days. But we haven’t got that luxury. Where we are at the moment, with the security, getting out of the hotel is very hard. We have to watch guys and make sure we as a group stay together and put a few things on to take guys’ minds away from it and when we are training make sure we’re on the right track," he said.
Former England pacer, Matthew Hoggard, meanwhile believes the team's struggles will continue against India. "It's going to be a very difficult tour for Cookie's side. We did very well on the subcontinent last time round and India will want payback. Add to that the conditions and our experience in Bangladesh and England are in for a stern test, particularly in terms of facing up to some high quality spin bowling, so we'll need to make significant improvements with both bat and ball. India deserve their place at the top of the Test rankings. I fear England's struggles will continue," he said.
England squad : Alastair Cook (captain), Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari, Johny Bairstow (WK), Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Gareth Batty, Stuart Broad, Jose Buttler, Ben Duckett, Steve Finn, H Hameed, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.
India squad for first two Tests : Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Karun Nair, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Shamra
