India and England will lock horns in the first of the five Test matches at Rajkot from 9 November.
India completed a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand in Tests recently, which helped Virat Kohli’s side reach the number one spot in the ICC Test Rankings.
England, on the other hand, drew a Test series (1-1) against Bangladesh last month. The Three Lions lost the second Test by 108 runs.
They will need to dig deep to dodge the Indian spin attack and to extract success from the dusty sub-continent pitches, as they look to win four Test series in a row against India.
However, the English team certainly have star players in their side, who can give tough competition to the home team.
The Quint takes a look at the five players to watch out for in the visiting team.
1. Ben Stokes
An important cog in the English wheel, Ben Stokes will be handy with both bat and ball. In the recently-concluded Test series against Bangladesh, Stokes scored 128 runs in the two matches, averaging 32 with a highest score of 85 runs.
His numbers in the series were more impressive as a bowler. The right-hand seamer took 11 wickets with an average of just 10.09. His picked up his best figures of 4/26 in the first Test match.
2. Moeen Ali
All-rounder, Moeen Ali will also be crucial player for the visitors. The off-spinner and the left-hand batsman knows what it takes to beat India as he played a clinical role with the ball during India’s tour of England in 2014. Ali bagged 19 wickets in the series.
The 29-year-old had a good run with the ball in Bangladesh as well, notching up 11 wickets at an average of 22.90. He was the only Englishman to pick up a five-wicket haul in the series.
However, with the bat, Ali amassed only 92 runs in the series, averaging just 23. He notched his series highest score of 68 in the first innings of the first Test.
Ali, who is good with his wrist work and ability to tackle spin with an attacking mind-set, the 29-year-old might just be fatal on a good batting track against India.
3. Joe Root
The talisman of the English batting line-up, Joe Root will be India’s biggest threat on the tour. Hailing from the county of the legendary Geoffrey Boycott’s Yorkshire, Root is ranked among the top four batsmen in the world right now. His ability to outclass the best of the bowlers with grace and elegance separates him from the rest.
However, the middle order batsman didn’t have a great time with the bat against Bangladesh. He managed just 98 runs in the entire series. He averaged 24.50 with a highest score of 56 runs.
During the 2014 Test series against India at home, Joe Root smashed 518 runs, which included two hundreds.
His biggest strength is his ability to play long innings without giving many opportunities to the opposition to find a loophole in his batting.
Joe Root’s battle against India’s ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be something to look out for during the Test series.
4. Haseeb Hameed
Haseeb Hameed is one of the most promising young cricketers at the moment. The opening right-hand batsman garnered a lot of attention during his stint with the Lancashire during the 2015-16 county season.
The 19-year-old has scored 1,455 runs at an average of 48 in just 20 first-class matches.
Despite making headlines in England, Hameed is still an unknown player to many fans in the world.
5. Alastair Cook
England’s captain Alastair Cook might be the last but surely not the least player to watch out for. A fantastic player of spin bowling, Cook has often acted as a thorn in the flesh of the Indian team after scoring a century on his Test debut against the very same side ten years back in Nagpur.
The left-hand batsman recently registered 10,000 runs in Tests, making him the only Englishman ever to achieve this feat. The calm captain on the field has tasted success against India as he led England to a 2-1 series win in India in 2012 and 3-1 home series win in 2014.
His Bangladesh’s tour wasn’t really fruitful for him as he scored just 89 runs. However, his chances of making it big against his favourite on-field rivals India during the series cannot be ruled out.
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