Testing time for Virat Kohli and Co

Just like he did before the Indian team boarded the flight to South Africa late last year, coach Ravi Shastri has talked up the country’s chances of winning an arduous five-match Test series in England that gets underway here at Edgbaston on Wednesday.

The coach believes the current bowling line-up, despite the absence of swing specialist Bhuvneshwar Kumar, has the ammunition to skittle England repeatedly. Well, the coach is indeed right. In Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami, they have a potent pace attack that can blast away a rebuilding England side, who have included controversial pick leg-spinner Adil Rashid in the final XI.

Ishant and Shami have played in England earlier and although the conditions may not be too seam friendly this time around following an intense summer in England, all three arrive with the reputation of being genuine match-winners.

Ishant was the hero of the famous Lord’s win four years ago, producing one of his best performances. Umesh has been one of the biggest contributors to India’s rise as the No 1 team in the world. During the phase when India won a whopping 21 out of 30 Tests, Umesh was a constant feature, often shining on Indian pitches where there’s not much help for pacers. Shami, despite his injury concerns, once again showed in South Africa that when he is on song, there are very few batsmen who can get away. Blessed with the ability to move the ball both ways at a fast pace, Shami is one hard customer to tackle which England found out even when they came to India in 2016.

However, given the heatwave in England, all three pacers may not play together with team management likely to field two spinners and use Hardik Pandya as the third pacer. Even in such a scenario, India have trump card in Kuldeep Yadav. The left-armer, if he plays, has tormented English batsmen and with wrist-spinners generally finding English conditions conducive, he could be handful.

While R Ashwin may not have enjoyed great success in non-Asian conditions, the possibility of playing on dry and battered pitches offers a great chance for him to dispel the feeling that he’s dangerous only in India.

The big worry for India as they seek a fourth series triumph on English soil is their wobbly top-order batting. Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan has been struggling for runs and got a pair in the only warm-up game against Essex. Even at the nets, he’s looked out of sorts against the short-pitched and full-length stuff.

One-drop batsman Cheteshwar Pujara too has been struggling for form since the start of the year and his outing for Yorkshire this County Championship too has been ordinary. The management needs to play in-form opener KL Rahul at the top along with Murali Vijay as fielding two out-of-sorts batsmen can be a recipe for disaster at a ground where England haven’t lost in a decade.

But this current set-up has constantly surprised all with their baffling team selections. From playing Rohit Sharma on juicy tracks for the first two Tests against South Africa to constantly tinkering with winning combinations and batting positions in the name boosting the bench strength, the current set-up has often left many bewildered. Just what XI turns up on Wednesday is anybody’s guess.

India have a serious challenge at hand despite a young England battling their own demons at the moment. It’s because they too appear vulnerable on the batting front. If the batsmen can rise to the occasion, they can harbour series win. Else the title “Tigers at home, lambs abroad” will return to haunt them.

England XI: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (capt), David Malan, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Sam Curran, James Anderson, Jos Buttler.

India squad: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant (wk).