Former English cricketer David Lloyd has made a bold prediction ahead of the upcoming four-match Test series between India and England and said that England’s bowlers need to keep Virat Kohli quiet.
England cricket team are set for a long tour against India starting from 5th February. They are slated to play 4 Tests, 3 ODIs, and 5 T20Is matches against the hosts.
With only 2 days remaining for the first match of the upcoming four-match Test series between India and England, both teams have started to get into the groove and prepare themselves for the first match after completing their mandatory six-day quarantine.
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However, both the teams are on the back of an overseas Test-series victory and will be high on confidence as India beat Australia 2-1 to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy while Joe Root’s England defeated Sri Lanka 2-0.
David Lloyd in the latest column on Daily Mail (written along with Nasser Hussain and Paul Newman) praised Team India and said that going into the series the hosts will be raging favorites.
“India is raging favorites, but it will be good for England to be underdogs. It will help them to have had two matches in Sri Lanka in what you’d think will be similar conditions. If I’m putting my two bobs, anywhere it’s on India,” David Lloyd wrote.
Lloyd stated that the hosts are the best team in the world which they proved after beating the Aussies in their own backyard.
“India are the best in the world as they showed in beating Australia almost without the captain. They’ve got a balanced team and wonderful batsmen. Nasser says they will miss Jadeja, but Axar Patel is a very good bowler if they go the way of spin,” wrote Lloyd.
Lloyd further stated that for England to win, they will need to keep Virat Kohli from scoring runs while Joe Root will have to do most of the scoring for the visitors.
“Joe Root simply has to match Virat Kohli. And England’s bowlers need to keep Kohli quiet. The onus will also be on England’s openers to be more solid than they were in Sri Lanka. I was pleased for Dom Sibley because he looked a lot better in his last innings,” he said.
As far as the scoreline for the Test series is concerned, David Lloyd reckoned that the home side will triumph with a margin of either 3-0 or even 4-0.
“I think India will win hands down, maybe 3-0 or 4-0, but I’d love to be proved wrong,” he concluded.
The four-match Test series will also be crucial in the context of the ICC World Test Championship, as the winner of the series is likely to clash with New Zealand in the final at Lord's ground in England.
(Daily Mail inputs)
