England vs India 2018: 5 Indian players you might not know have scored Test 50s in England 

Scoring a Test half-century in England is always a difficult task for any visiting batsman as they need to cope with the difficult swing bowling conditions on offer. Despite having some of the best batsmen in the world, the Indians have always found it difficult to pile up the runs on the green and grassy English pitches.

The failure of their batsmen to tackle swinging conditions has meant that the Indian team has won just 3 Tests out of the last 16 that they have played in England. With an aim of winning its first test series on British soil since 2007, the Indian selectors have announced a strong 18-man squad, with a big hope that their batsmen will finally come good in English conditions.

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There are several Indian batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, who liked batting on English soil and therefore have excellent test batting averages in England. But, among the current crop, barring Murali Vijay, most batsmen do not have any notable innings, with current skipper Virat Kohli yet to register a test fifty in England.

Virat Kohli, who is currently one of the best batsmen in all three formats, has struggled a lot against the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, yet there are a few Indian players who have surprised most with their batting skills in such conditions.

Hence, in this article we look at five such Indians who have registered a Test 50 in England:

#5 Sanjay Bangar

Sanjay Bangar: India's current assistant coach

Of all the players on this list, current Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar cannot be considered as a batsman with limited batting skills, because during his playing days Bangar consistently piled up the runs in the domestic circuit for Railways while opening the innings.

Sanjay Bangar had a short International career with the Indian team and was picked mostly as a seam-bowling all-rounder in both the ODIs and tests between 2001 and 2004. Despite scoring heavily in the domestic circuit, Bangar failed to create much of an impact in the International arena, with his test batting average being a modest 29.37 which included three fifties and a hundred.

Of the three half-centuries Sanjay Bangar scored in the test format, one of them came at Headingley during India's 2002 tour. In that particular match, Bangar was promoted to open the innings after some poor performances by fellow opener Wasim Jaffer.

Bangar justified his promotion by scoring a patient 68 off 236 balls on the first day, thereby sharing an invaluable partnership of 170 runs with Rahul Dravid for the 2nd wicket on a difficult wicket. Later on, in the same match, Bangar also chipped in with two important wickets to set up a rare victory on English soil.

#4 Stuart Binny

Stuart Binny has never been able to replicate his father

Since the retirement of the legendary Kapil Dev, the Indian team management has tried many seam bowling all-rounders, without much success. Stuart Binny was chosen as the one to fulfil that role during India's 2014 tour of England. He was primarily picked as a medium pacer who could swing the ball and a decent batsman capable of hitting the ball a long way.

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However, like many before him, Binny also wasn't much of a success on the international arena despite putting up strong performances in the domestic circuit. Despite a modest intentional career, one thing Stuart Binny will be proud of is the fact that he has a Test half-century on English soil to his name, which incidentally is his only half-century till date.

In the first Test of the 2014 tour, played at Trent Bridge, which was also his debut test, Binny scored a match-saving 78 in the 2nd innings to help India avoid defeat.

#3 Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh will go down into the history books as one of India's finest

Popularly known as Bhajji among cricket fans, Harbhajan Singh is one of the greatest off-spinners to have ever played the game of cricket. He currently stands second on the list of most Test wickets by an off-spinner, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

After the emergence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh found himself out of Indian setup post the 2011 World Cup and has struggled to break into the national fold on a regular basis since.

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Harbhajan Singh apart from being a wicket-taking spinner, was more than a handy batsman for India in the test format having notched up two centuries and 9 fifties.

Of his nine half-centuries, the Turbanator also recorded one in tough English conditions. In the 2nd test of the 2002 tour, Harbhajan scored a quickfire 54 off just 37 balls in the 1st innings to help India post a respectable score of 357, helping India to draw the match en route to a famous 1-1 series draw.

#2 Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra has never been able to establish himself in the Indian team

For the better part of the 21st century, Amit Mishra saw his selection in Indian team being blocked off due to the presence of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

Later on, when Kumble retired in 2008 and Harbhajan fell out of favour in 2011, Mishra was once again ignored by the selectors in favour of Ashwin and Jadeja, thereby halting his 15-year international career to just 22 tests, 36 ODIs and 8 T-20 appearances.

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In the 22 test matches he played for the Indian team, Mishra was always chosen primarily as an attacking leg-spinner who was more than handy with the bat lower down the order.

One of Amit Mishra's four test 50s came during 2nd innings of the final test at the 2011 England tour. The game which was held at the Oval, the leg-spinner was surprisingly promoted to bat at No. 5 ahead of the likes of Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina.

Amit Mishra justified his promotion by scoring a fine 84 as he added 144 runs for the 4th wicket with Sachin Tendulkar but failed to help India avoid an innings defeat. In fact, Amit Mishra has a healthy test batting average of 38.25 in England.

#1 Mohammed Shami

Mohammed Shami can hit the ball hard

Perhaps, the most surprising inclusion on this list is India's premier fast bowler, Mohammed Shami who also has a test fifty in England, which incidentally is his only half-century so far.

Mohammed Shami scored his maiden test fifty during India's previous tour of England in 2014 during the first test of the 4 match series at Trent Bridge.

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In that particular test match, Shami managed to score 51 runs, batting at No. 11 during which he was also involved in a record-breaking last-wicket partnership of 111 runs with Bhuvneshwar Kumar who himself scored a useful 58 runs, thereby helping India post a respectable total of 457.