The ManicaPost
Seasoned cricket observers in England can be forgiven if they are scratching their heads and struggling to recognise many of the names in India’s touring party. Even us Indian fans barely know who some of the players are. This must be, by some distance, the most inexperienced Indian squad to have toured England for several decades.
Only three of them have played Test cricket here before, and they now find themselves facing a full five-match series in England for the first time since 1959.
In fact the last occasion India played five Tests against anyone was back in 2002, when the grizzled old captain MS Dhoni was still three years away from his debut.
It is a far cry from the collection of ‘galacticos’ — Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman et al — who last toured here in 2011. That ageing team, which arrived as the world No 1, suffered the humiliation of a 4-0 whitewash that marked a violent end to the dominance of India’s golden generation.
If even that star-studded side capitulated so horribly in English conditions, then some may ask what hope there is for the current crop? Including that tour three years ago, India have been defeated in all of their last four away Test series, losing 10 of the 12 matches played.
Little wonder then that the media-averse coach Duncan Fletcher, in one of the few pronouncements he will make all summer, was keen to label his charges as youthful and inexperienced underdogs.
But the wily old strategist, who has been allowed to continue developing a new generation of players despite the sequence of poor results, also raised the suggestion ‘they might fire from this series’ onwards.
While he was careful not to mention it, he has no doubt taken huge encouragement from England’s own dreadful tally of losing six of their last seven Tests.
In reality, this is a series between two rather weak sides that are still struggling to reinvent themselves after the sudden loss of several very fine players, whether through retirement, ill-health or ill-discipline.
And the main cause of India’s torment three years ago — a disciplined and relentless bowling unit led by Jimmy Anderson at the peak of his powers — is looking nothing like the force it was back then.
At the very least, there should be enough strength in India’s traditional virtue — its batting — to avoid a repeat of the 2011 whitewash.
Their first aim will be to avert defeat in the opening two Tests at Trent Bridge and Lord’s, where the bowling conditions are often very much to England’s liking. As the series goes on, and if we do indeed experience the long and hot summer tentatively promised by weather forecasters, then the pitches will become more like the dustbowls the Indians know back home.
The batting hopes will rest, in particular, on the shoulders of two men who may eventually go some distance towards emulating the great names they have succeeded.
Cheteshwar Pujara, a classical technician who looks like he was born to play Test cricket, is the natural heir to Rahul Dravid in the No 3 slot. With a batting average close to 60 from his 19 Tests, he has scored centuries against all five nations he has faced, including an unbeaten double hundred against England.
While Pujara is something of a throwback to a bygone era, the other key batsman — Virat Kohli — typifies the brash and loud nature of modern India. — Daily Mail.
