Cricket: Preview of England V India Test Series

Thursday sees the beginning of what should be a compelling test match series between the currently 1st ranked side in the world, India, and England, who are in 3rd spot. The four test series begins at Lord's in what should be a memorable test match as it is not just the curtain raiser for this summer's skirmish between the two teams but is also the 2,000 test match. In a further twist, that behemoth of the modern game, Sachin Tendulkar, will come to the crease requiring one further century to complete one hundred international hundreds, a notion that would have been unthinkable only a decade ago. If that were not inspiration enough for the little master, he has never scored a test match century at the home of cricket in four previous visits.

After Lord's the series moves on to Trent Bridge and Edgbaston before concluding in late August at The Oval. The fact that the series does not at any stage go further than the East Midlands might on the surface seem to be of some help to the visitors, however the long term forecast for the series predicts distinctly cool and somewhat damp conditions. Hardly the conditions that the Indians are accustomed to, or indeed have prospered in in the past. Rather, these are tailor made conditions for the English seam attack. Given that the dominant battle point of the series would seem to be the English seam attack versus the much vaunted Indian batting line up, the potential conditions take on even greater significance.

To add to England's potential advantage here, Virender Sehwag, counter attacking opening batsman par excellence, is expected to be ruled out for at least the first two tests. This robs the English spectators of one of the most thrilling sights in world cricket but will doubtless act as a further confidence boost to the home dressing room. Sehwag's place will be taken by Abhinav Mukund, whose previous test match experience lies solely in a recent three test contest in the Carribean in which he hardly marked himself out as one with the world at his feet against one of the weakest sides in world cricket. Further factors which might suggest that the Indian batting lineup's strength is more a theoretical one than anything else is the inactivity in the longest form of the game for the first seven months of this year of Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, who chose to sit out the West Indies series. Chris Tremlett's steepling bounce might also discomfort the Indians, who prefer to come forward onto the front foot rather than deal with short pitched balls aimed at the ribcage and higher.

England have picked a twelve man squad for the first test match and the indications are that Stuart Broad will retain his place despite recent injuries and poor form across all formats of the game both with ball and bat and that Tim Bresnan will be released on the day of the match to return to Yorkshire. In my opinion this is a significant gamble since the Indian batting line up is such a strong one, even after considering potential sticking points. Quite what it would do to the morale of a player short on form to receive a flogging on a grand scale is open to question. Furthermore though, it suggests that England are not applying a consistency of selection on a case by case basis but rather in a sort of blanket approach. Or to put it another way, having in past decades and generations been far too cavalier with the selectorial axe, they have now lurched to far the other way and players seem almost un-droppable (Alastair Cook spectacularly returned to form when his place was in doubt but that is not to say all players can be given endless opportunities to work through bad form in the test match arena). This works fine while the team is winning (it has won five straight test match series) but if results were to dry up it would be interesting to see if this approach were maintained and the faint "jobs for the boys" feel of the outcome of the selection meetings continued. In the case of Broad, it’s hard to escape the feeling that he is being feted as some sort of golden child by the England selectors. As even his county coach, Mike Newell said recently, "As a cricketer he is still learning," Newell said. "But he barely plays county cricket, so he is having to learn in Test matches, on flat pitches against good players. And the way he bowls depends on what kind of bowler England want him to be." Frankly, no player should be learning cricket at a test level - it blows to pieces the idea of selection being based on meritocratic grounds and in the case of Broad, he risks further alienating England fans by his petulant behaviour towards officials and sometimes even his own fieldsmen.

The world’s two best spinners face off in another intriguing sub-plot, with Harbhajan Singh, who recently reached the milestone of 400 test wickets, going head to head with England’s talismanic off spinner, Graeme Swann. Harbhajan is a canny, highly competitive performer who is showing signs of rediscovering his best form and high class spin bowling remains England’s batting Achilles heel. Eoin Morgan’s addition to the middle order goes someway to rectifying this but Strauss, Cook, Trott and Prior remain unconvincing, and rather leaden footed against the world’s better tweakers. I fully expect Harbhajan to have success in this series, regardless of the overhead conditions. He should find at least two of the pitches at the four venues to his liking as England are bound to produce wickets that play to their own strengths.

Zaheer Khan will lead the Indian seam attack and he is the finest exponent of left arm seam bowling around, which is a form of bowling that has recently troubled Andrew Strauss and to a lesser extent, Kevin Pietersen. Ishant Sharma returned to form in the West Indies, but the third seam bowling spot could be an area that England target, with neither Sree Sreesanth nor Munaf Patel being much more than honest toilers. The Indian seam attack has neither the strength in depth of England’s nor the quality in its first choice picks but Zaheer should fare well in English conditions.

A final ingredient in this mouth watering contest is Duncan Fletcher’s presence in the away dressing room. As a veteran of some 96 test matches in his previous role as England coach and a reputation as a batting analyst of the highest - and most scrupulous - order, his inside information may affect the England batting line up (half of whom at least he has first hand knowledge of) in a practical sense but equally has the potential to create an unsettled mindset among those concerned before they even take guard and receive their first ball. His inside information regarding England’s bowling attack is far less significant as only James Anderson played a significant number of games under Fletcher’s stewardship and he has since improved several fold as a bowler. However the Fletcher versus England’s batsmen angle is a fascinating one.

Fletcher had an ability to form close alliances with his England captains, although Andrew Flintoff is a notable exception, and it will be interesting to see how quickly he has been able to come to an understanding with MS Dhoni, with just the recent West Indies tour behind them. Both Dhoni and Andrew Strauss are more lead-by-example captains than great tacticians and both err a little too much on the side of caution - Strauss in his declarations and Dhoni in his recent refusal to chase a target against the West Indies in the 3rd test, settling instead for a draw and 1-0 series win. It feels like a series that is unlikely to be decided by any inspired manoeuvrings on the part of one of the captains to trump his opposing number.

All of these sub plots will be played out in front of packed houses and a significant ex-patriot Indian presence will add greatly to the atmosphere. It is to be hoped that this almost home from home like feel for the visitors will spur them on to great things, however I can’t help but feel that the weather forecast has significantly marked India’s card and I have an idea that the series will be less competitive than many observers predict. I would not at all be surprised to see a 2-0 or a 3-1 scoreline, and would lean towards the former having taken into consideration the potential inclement weather and my strongly held belief that an Indian attack reliant firmly on two bowlers will struggle to take twenty English wickets at any point in the series. However, the fact this view is well in the minority bodes well for the series as a spectacle and the impartial observer and test cricket lover in me hopes for as tight and high quality a series as possible.