England favourites to win the first Test against India

The first three days of cricket in the India-England Test series goes in to show the beauty of the game. This is Test cricket at its very best. After 9 gruelling sessions, India needs another 83 odd runs to win this test and take a 1-0 lead over England. With Virat Kohli still standing strong as the 'Rock of Gibraltar,' one may sense that India is marginally ahead in this test match.

The game goes in to show the determination and never-say-die attitude of the touring captain. In 2014, Kohli faced 288 balls across 10 innings. Now in 2018, Kohli already faced a total of 301* deliveries only within the first test match. While these statistical highlights give a lot of hope to Indian fans but the odds are still in favour of England.

The Edgbaston wicket has always been known to assist fast bowlers. Barring Kohli, none of the Indian batsmen applied themselves to playing quality back-foot shots. Taking all the Indian dismissals into account, be it Vijay's big stride forward, Dhawan's expansive drive without moving across the crease or Rahane's lack of intent in using his feet prove that Indians failed to keep their basics right.

While Dinesh Karthik survived the initial onslaught in his contribution of 15 runs, it will be interesting to see his technique in the remaining run chase. With Hardik Pandya waiting in the dressing room to form the last recognized pair of the batting line up, Indians would be desperately hoping the pair of Kohli and Karthik to finish the job for India.

Scheduled to bat at number 8, Pandya is going to be left with very little chance of repeating his cameo of 93 off 95 balls that came against South Africa in the Cape Town test.

England holds an impressive record against India at the Edgbaston. Of 6 Test matches played between the two teams in this venue, England came out victorious on 5 occasions and drawn once. The last time when England lost a match in Edgbaston was against South Africa in 2008. So, England can consider themselves very lucky after Sam Curran's well made 63 which gave them a fighting chance to come back into this test match from 87 for the loss of 7 wickets.

Also, England would remember their share of luck in the 2005 Ashes Test when they pulled a 2 run victory after Michael Kasprowicz gloved a short ball to Geraint Jones. If India happens to win this Test match, it will be their 7th Test victory on the English soil. Any target in excess of 150 is difficult to chase on the Edgbaston wicket. Only 3 times teams have successfully chased this kind of a target.

The wicket is already giving a lot of assistance to fast bowlers. Starting day 4, the pitch is likely to deteriorate even further and the company of Broad and Anderson can exploit these conditions to reverse swing the oddball to good effect.

The existing weather conditions are making matters even worse as the wicket is devoid of moisture under Birmingham's searing heat. The wicket can thereby get very unpredictable when spinners like Adil Rashid start extracting some sharp turn out of this wicket.

Given the fact, Edgbaston is well represented by Indians, the England team would be left with a 'Home away from home' feeling. Perhaps, this is the only thing which is looking good in India's favour. The play is not likely to last for more than 2 hours and within this short window of time, the beauty of Test cricket is going to guarantee us lots of entertainment.

If it's an Indian win which seems very unlikely, India will not only retain their No. 1 position but turn out favourites to win the Test series for the fourth time on English soil after 1971, 1986 and 2007.