3 takeaways for Team India from the recently concluded England-Pakistan Test series

The much awaited India’s tour of England is just less than a month away. The tour will start with 3 T20Is followed by 3 ODIs ending in mid-July. The Test series will kick off from August 1st, with Edgbaston as the venue for the 1st of the 5 Test match series.

Already there is huge anticipation and excitement among the Indian cricket fans as this will be Team India’s first overseas tour followed by many leading into the 2019 Cricket World Cup, that would be held in England.

Virat Kohli and his men lost the Test series in South Africa 2-1, but the fight shown by the team in all the 3 Test matches drew applause from the critics. Team India had a forgettable 2014 Test series in England losing the Test series 3-1 under the leadership of M.S Dhoni, but with a much stronger batting and bowling department, one would hope for a better result for Team India this time around.

On the other hand, the England team is in red-hot form beating a formidable Pakistan team in the second Test at Leeds. Despite losing the 1st Test at Lords, England made a remarkable comeback and won the 2nd Test quite convincingly within 3 days at Headingley. The series was tied 1-1.

This was a competitive series between both the teams, while Pakistan’s bowling attack stood up to the occasion that won them the 1st Test, similarly, England’s bowlers made most of the conditions on Day 1 in the 2nd Test that set the game up for them.

The Indian think-tank would have noticed a thing or two from this series that could help them achieve the much-needed success in England.

Here are few takeaways for the Indian team from the recently concluded England vs Pakistan Test series.

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Need to get rid of the openers early

We all know that Alistair Cook and Andrew Strauss were considered to be one of the best Test openers England have ever produced. But ever since Strauss retired from Test cricket England have tried and tested more than 10 new openers alongside Alistair Cook but none of them could replicate the success of Andrew Strauss and partner Cook for a considerable period of time.

Here's list of openers that partnered Alistair Cook, post the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012:

Nick Compton - 2012-13 season

Joe Root - 2013 season

Michael Carberry - 2013-14 season

Sam Robson - 2014 season

Jonathan Trot - 2015 season

Adam Lyth - 2015 season

Moeen Ali - 2015-16 season

Alex Hales - 2016 season

Ben Duckett - 2016 season

Haseeb Hameed - 2016 season

Keaton Jennings - 2016 - Current

Mark Stoneman - 2017 - Current

As many as 12 combinations were seen over the past 6 years and the opening slot is still an on-going concern for the England team. Also, stats show that the England openers could manage only one 50 run partnership in the last 13 innings.

England had Mark Stoneman as partner for Alistair Cook in the 1st Test against Pakistan. Stoneman's failure in the 1st Test prompted a change and Keaton Jennings was roped in for the 2nd Test to partner Alistair Cook.

Henceforth, it will be extremely crucial for the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah or Ishant Sharma to get the initial breakthroughs that would dent the opposition.

Jasprit Bumrah and Ishant Sharma would hit the deck hard and with pace and bounce they could be lethal and can cause trouble to the England batsmen.

However, Bhuvneswar Kumar would be the key as he can swing the ball both ways and if he can get through the top order just like he did in South Africa, it would dent the confidence of England’s team and would put India’s position in driving seat.

4 Fast bowlers and 1 spinner will be the perfect combination

In the recently concluded series, Pakistan went in with 4 genuine seamers and 1 leg-spinner in the form of Shadab Khan in both the Test matches and this turned out to be a successful combination for them. The Pakistani seamers picked up 18 wickets in the 1st Test that won them the game at Lords.

Team India would most probably go with 3 genuine fast bowlers and 1 spinner in the form of Ravi Ashwin for the 1st Test at Edgbaston. They will have the services of Hardik Pandya as another seam bowler, who has been very handy with the ball in his short Test career so far.

This attack of 4 seamers and 1 spinner could well turn out to be a winning combination for Team India, considering the fact that most of the pitches in England will be seamer friendly.

Although Ravi Ashwin wouldn’t get much purchase from the pitches in England, his variations in the form of carom ball and the leg-spinner would come in handy. Also, he would want to use all his experience gained from his county stint last year, playing for Worcestershire.

In his county stint last year, Ashwin picked up 8 wickets in his debut match against Gloucestershire. In the 2nd innings, he picked up 5-68 and ended up with match figures of 8-162.

Avoid Horizontal bat shots early on in the Innings

On pitches, where the ball moves both ways predominantly, playing horizontal bat shots early in the innings would be a big mistake. The Indian top order struggled in South Africa mostly due to horizontal bat shorts against the South African seamers early on in their innings.

In the last tour of England in 2014, the Indian batsmen fell prey to the 4th stump line and were dismissed behind the wicket majority of the times. The batsmen went after the swinging ball and ended up edging the ball to the wicket-keeper and slips. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay, every other batsman struggled to negotiate the swing bowling of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.

The Indian batsmen need to be mindful of this and would look to spend more time at the crease. The 1st session is always crucial and if Indians are batting first, the batsmen would need to leave a lot of deliveries outside the off stump and avoid playing the horizontal shots.

Shikhar Dhawan in particular, who had a forgettable last tour of England would need to be aware and be prepared to counter the duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who would bowl to the 4th stump line outside the off stump.

Batting in England gets easy from the second session, hence it would be crucial for the Indian batsmen to occupy the crease and negotiate the early storm. Once the batsmen are set, run-scoring becomes easy and if the likes of Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli and Rahane get going team India can put up a massive score on the board.