What can Team India learn from English Tours of the Past?

Foreign shores have often proved to be the Indian Cricket Team’s Achilles heel and England has been no different, especially, when it comes to the longest format of the sport. In 193 Test Matches played outside Asia (barring Zimbabwe), India has won 26, drawn 75, and lost 92 matches- a win/loss ratio of 0.28! A combined 9 series wins, 3 of which have come in the West Indies in the last 12 years, in 55 attempts. At home, against the same opposition, they have won 75 Tests, drawn 82, and lost just 47. A win/loss ratio of 1.59, that is almost 6 times better.

An Indian side has made as many as 17 trips to Great Britain and returned victorious only thrice, drawing one Test series and losing 13. Each of these three victorious campaigns is at least 15 years apart, showing that in no era has an Indian team shown sustained quality in Engla. As the African Proverb goes, “You always learn a lot more when you lose than when you win.” So what can Team India learn from the defeats of their countrymen in the years gone by?

#1 Acclimatization

India has toured England 4 times in this century. While the first two sojourns were successful- drawing the series 1-1 in 2002, and winning it 1-0 in 2007, the next two were disastrous- losing 0-4 in 2011, and 1-3 in 2014 after being 1-0 up. What was different?

In 2002, India played as many as 8 tour matches across formats against English counties and a West Indies A team. By the time the Test series came around, they had also competed in a Tri-series alongside England and Sri Lanka and won it. Remember Dada’s shirt-removing act at Lord’s? In 2007, they had played 5 ODIs in Ireland and Scotland against the likes of Ireland, Pakistan, and South Africa, and 5 other tour games.

Come 2011, there was no tour of Ireland, no ODI series, and just 1 tour match before the Test series got underway. In 2014, it was hardly any better with as many as 2 tour matches before the first Test. Put simply, India were undercooked and didn’t have enough time to acclimatize to the English conditions which, to be honest, are pretty foreign for us tropical creatures.

This time around India again play just a solitary tour game. However, they will be traveling to Ireland to play two T20Is and competing with England in a T20I as well as an ODI series before the Test series commences.

#2 Start Strong

Most Important Match of the Series? The First.

On the 4 tours in which India did not concede the Test series in England (1971, 1986, 2002, 2007), they lost the first Test Match in only one (2002). On the other hand, in the 13 Test series that they have lost, India have conceded the first Test on 12 occasions and have had to play catch up from the word go. The previous series, in 2014, is the only instance of India losing a series in England, despite not losing the first Test. So, India needs to start strong and then look to build on it.

The last time a team won a Test series in England, after losing the first Test? New Zealand in 1999.

#3 Bat First may not be the best way forward

Seaming tracks can be a cause of worry on the first day

Runs on the board have always counted for a lot in Cricket, irrespective of the format. But, the seaming tracks in England may not be the most suited for a team not used to playing consistent swing bowling. India’s average score in the first innings in the 10 Tests in which they have won the toss, batted first, and gone on to lose in England is 188, with one score of 250 or more, back in 1952. England’s first innings average in the same 10 Tests (where they have been asked to field first by India and have yet won the match) is 389, with only one sub-250 score, back in 1959. A clear indication of English batsmen making most of the improved batting conditions on the second day of the Test and pushing the game beyond India’s reach.

There have of course been exceptions to this, none more famous than the Leeds Test of 2002, where India opted to bat first on a green track under overcast conditions and brilliant centuries from Dravid, Ganguly, and Tendulkar led them to a famous win. But these have been rare. The Oval and Trent Bridge are the only two venues where the Indian team has done well repeatedly after choosing to bat first.

India

have

traditionally done well batting first at only two English venues

#4 Batting in a Pack

One man cannot do it all.

It is commonplace in Cricket for bowlers to hunt in pairs or even in a pack. The same applies for batsmen. One batsman firing might win you a game here and there if he is extraordinary. But, unless the bulk of the batting order collectively fires, it is difficult for a team to hold its own for long, and you are bound to be caught in a long 5-match Test series. And that is exactly what has plagued India in its last two tours of England. Rahul Dravid in 2011 was the personification of a lone man fighting the battle- scoring 69% more runs than the next best Indian batsman in the Test series.

An analysis of batsmen scoring in packs in India’s last 4 tours of England yields interesting results. In 2002, in 5 innings out of 6, the third highest run scorer of the innings, scored at least half of what the top scorer scored, indicating a shared workload. In 2007, this was achieved 5 times out of 5*. A combined total of 10 out of 11 or 91%.

In the 2011 series, this came about only once in 8 innings, with only one batsman or at most two being left to fend for themselves and in 2014, things improved but not much with the stat being achieved in 4 innings out of 10. A combined total of 5 out of 18 or 28%- a stunning fall from the 2002 and 2007 tours.

Even contribution is a must

*Only completed innings considered

If Team India can get these things straight, we may well have a cracker of a 5-match Test Series ahead of us. For, the Virat Kohli led side definitely has the wares to challenge the English on their shores, much like Ajit Wadekar’s in 1971, Kapil Dev’s in 1986, Saurav Ganguly’s in 2002, and Rahul Dravid’s in 2007.