A Tug of War on the Cricket field - India Vs England Test Series 2012:

       For anyone who hears cricket news, it is yet another Test series in India hosting England. But for any decent cricket follower (let alone the fans from either country), it is going to be a tough war on and off the cricket field. The reason it is off the field is, both cricket boards ECB and BCCI want to rip each other hair out through this.

       Ever since India won the World Cup in 2011, it has been quite a turnaround of things in World cricket especially in Test cricket. India looked like a giant in world cricket both in administration and on the field having won the world cup and their last Test series in South Africa to retain their No. 1 ranking in Test cricket. For some reasons, the traditional cricketing monsters England and Australia didn’t find it appropriate. Noticeably, India was adamant and not going with the choice of the majority with regards to UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System). It kind of gave an exterior idea that India is influencing cricket to the extend it questions the fraternity of common interest. To add to the predicament, England had its grief with its one or few of the players having priorities for IPL. 


       It is with this situation India traveled to England for a Test series in 2011. Some of the England players like Chris Tremlett was publicly demanding for tough green top pitches to be offered to India for that series in England. Indians were going into the series from a successful tour of West Indies where the wickets were flat and the opponents’ batting was nothing extraordinary. England had a big trap for India that the visitors could not have even dreamt of. Indians played just a three day game and got hammered all over the place and ended up witnessing green top pitches laid to swallow them in the following test match series and in the blink of the eye the end result was a 4-0 whitewash. After this, when toured Australia in December 2011, India asked for more practice matches, Cricket Australia gave India what they wanted in a manipulated or disguised form. Their first tour game was a two day game on a flat track and their second was on a turner with Ashwin and Jon Holland the two spinners sharing ten wickets between them. But the Test match series that followed had all the matches on pitches looking like green grass bowls and the end result was the same a 4-0 whitewash again, at the hands of Australians.

        Having had their lessons learnt the hard way, with the knock to their head still ringing in ears, India will host England for four Test match series starting this Thursday, on November 15. For the first time in my knowledge, the BCCI is in the place to devise plans and sketch maps for its team. One could argue they were forced or indulged in it, either way they are into it smartly. People say good or bad, what goes around comes around. It has a come as a 'boomerang' for England. Now they face the stern acid test against spin bowling come this series. BCCI has already made sure that England receives nothing less than the hospitality that was offered to India during its tour last year. First of all, the three tour games (already completed) for England in Indian soil are on green top pitches, with little exposure to quality spin bowling if not completely devoid. Noticeably, among the three different teams (below par) that played against England, only Amit Mishra was the genuine spinner and even he did not bowl that many overs. In fact he did not bowl any overs in the second innings of the recently concluded tour game for Haryana. Having faced less than 11% of spin bowling in the second innings in the tour games, Cook the England skipper stated that his team would have liked to face more spin bowling. Whatever the spin bowling practice they getting are from local net bowlers but it would be interesting to see if that would be enough to face Ashwin and Ojha in the series. Cook feels it is sufficient but not satisfactory, but it puts a question on anyone’s mind that if net bowling practice is enough why wouldn’t Swann and Panesar be not good enough for England’s preparation against Ashwin and Ojha respectively. 

        This state of things are apparent for England after having lost the Test series 3-0 to Pakistan spin duos Saeed Ajmal and Rahman, followed by a humiliating loss to India by 90 runs to Indian spinners in the T20 world cup. Indeed, experienced cricket experts like Geoff Boycott have made their minds clear about England’s chances having played so poorly against the turning ball so far. BCCI and India plan to take advantage of the opponents’ weakness against spin bowling. 

        Sometimes there is nothing gentle in the ‘gentlemen’s game’. Revenge might be a word of arrogance and over confidence but India would certainly look to pay back. It will not only be a great test of skills but also be a test of characters for the English batsmen as they have to play out the emerging spin couple of Ojha and Ashwin. It will certainly test their patience to wait for bad balls to score runs. 

        The biggest asset to England is their pace battery with Anderson, Broad and Bresnan. Finn and Broad are having problems with their fitness but I am sure Broad will be leading the attack for the first test. If they can restrict India to anything less than 400 in the first innings, then automatically it would pile the pressure on Indian bowling attack. The another key would be their batting order, with Cook and Trott play waiting game; Pietersen and Prior to play their strokes. The most important component for success in India is having big partnerships and rotating the strike. But it would not be cake walk for the English in the alien conditions. It will be interesting to see how Pietersen responds after his exclusion from the team. Mostly England’s chances of scoring runs will be determined whether he acts as like a caged tiger or a caged mouse.

        From the Indian team point of view, as ever the pace bowling is a worrying sign with Zaheer breaking up way too often even in a recent Ranji trophy game for Mumbai. Often, Umesh Yadav sprays the ball all over the place. Ever since Sourav Ganguly retired from Indian Test cricket, the batting order has been unsettled. To add to this, the Indian openers Gambhir and Sehwag have not stitched together a meaningful match winning partnership for more than a year and a half now. Both of their awry form, along with the inexperienced middle order is a big well to leap over in the quest of making the big score in the first innings of a Test match. It would be interesting to see if Sachin Tendulkar has substantial cricket left in him to score big runs in the series against such a quality bowling attack. Yuvraj Singh who will be the favorite for the No. 6 slot in the batting order will also be a key to India’s bowling with his slow lefties. It will be an old stirred up battle against Pietersen with his ‘pie-chucks’. If the batting order puts runs on the board then India will have an upper edge right through with their spin attack.

        In nut shell, it will be a fascinating series of Test cricket, who knows might be with surprises and amusement with two quality teams one looking to overcome their stature against the weakness written against them and the other looking to give back the sour taste of medicine. 

 Players to watch out: 

England: A.Cook who plays the waiting game will be a pivotal tool for England along with KP to make those big runs. It will be interesting to see how Swann bowl against the better players of spin bowling along with the quickies. 

India: R.Ashwin has been the lead spinner for an year now, almost running through every team he played at home in Test matches. He would be the vital result indicator of the spin acid test for England. It is with him the fate of India’s margin of triumph lies on. In the batting order, Kohli has been in sublime form and he rarely misses out but the one to watch out would be Yuvraj Singh who can take the spinners on when India would look to push the score on, especially if the top order had scored runs. 


All in all, a riveting Test match series of high intensities is on the cards! 

 (I will be happy to have your suggestions and any difference in opinion on this piece of writing)