Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
The Indian Cricket Team has arrived for their tour of England, which involves ODI and T20I series’ of three games each before concluding with a five match Test series.
It is the latter that has grabbed all the eyeballs, the chief reason being India’s previous tour of England in 2014, which ended in a disaster.
However, things are looking better for India this year. The South African tour in January this year saw them perform superbly, despite the fact that they lost the Test match series 2-1. The big takeaway was the rapid progress made by their bowling lineup, especially the fast bowlers.
The pacers were relentless on the helpful South African wickets, putting India in strong positions in all the three matches, only for the batsmen to mess it up. In the Test that India won at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, all 20 wickets were taken by their pacers, the first time India has ever managed that in 86 years of playing Test Cricket.
India will enter the England Test series with the confidence provided by its fast bowling lineup. Complementing the swing of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the bounce of Ishant Sharma, the raw pace and skiddy nature of Jasprit Bumrah has added a new dimension to the Indian team. They would be ably supported by Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav.
The Test matches will definitely be a tough challenge for skipper Virat Kohli, who has a point or two to prove after a horrid run last time around, where he managed to score just 134 runs in 10 innings at an average of 13.4. Before departing for England, he had said that India would have been in England for a month by the time the Test series begins and thus well acclimatised to the conditions.
It will be an enjoyable series to watch, with India coming in as the number one ranked team in the world. After being annihilated in both 2011 and 2014, they would be looking to set the record straight. The onus, especially after their performance in South Africa, rests firmly on its fast bowlers.
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