India will be embarking on the tour to England in months of July-August. This tour includes three T20Is, three ODIs and five Test matches between the two countries. The limited overs series will be played first, with three T20Is opening the tour, followed by three ODIs in the month of July 2018.
Though India came out on top in the ODIs and lost the sole T20I on their last tour to England in 2014, there are many things that have changed since then, mainly the change in the attitude of English cricket administration and their subsequent results in the last three and a half years, which has resulted in England reaching the pinnacle of the ODI rankings.
England changed their outlook to the limited overs cricket after the debacle of 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia-New Zealand, where England crashed out in group stages, losing to Bangladesh in a must-win match.
Since then, Eoin Morgan replaced Alastair Cook as the captain of the team and England brought in limited overs specialists in the team and the results have been brilliant. They have scored over 400 runs in an innings ODIs since then; including the highest ever score in ODI cricket of 444/3 against Pakistan.
Team India have chosen a formidable squad to face England, on the back of some amazing performances in IPL 2018; but have 5 very big concerns to deal with before going to England, which they have to answer.
Here are the 5 major concerns for India before the limited overs series against England
(All stats updated till 18th June 2018)
Hardik Pandya: Will he bowl his full quota of ten overs?
One of the biggest headaches for India will be going in with five genuine bowlers or four bowlers plus Hardik Pandya. Hardik Pandya has the ability to crunch the speed levels to 140 kmph, but bowls regularly at a medium pace and often is used as a partnership breaker.
However, he has a tendency to go for runs and hence has seldom bowled his full quota of ten overs in ODIs. Now the dilemma for captain Kohli will be whether to go in the ODI series with 5 full bowlers or with 4 genuine bowlers and Hardik Pandya, banking on him to give him 10 good overs. Other than Pandya, the only other part-time bowling option for Kohli will be Suresh Raina’s off-spin.
It will take a lot of heart for the team management to bank on Hardik Pandya to give 10 good overs of medium pace against the likes of Bairstow, Buttler, Morgan, Roy and other hard-hitting English batsmen.
How to counter the likes of Buttler, Roy, and Morgan?
Talking of the hard-hitting English batsmen, the policy of blooding in specialists for limited overs game has worked wonders for the England team. Jason Roy, Alex Hales, and Eoin Morgan may no longer feature in England’s Test plans but are key ingredients to their vision WC 2019.
England has completely overhauled their batting, with the focus of having a long batting lineup, which bats to no.10 almost. Openers Roy and Bairstow have taken the best of bowlers to the task, with Roy hitting the best ODI score by an English batsman against Australia recently, while Bairstow hit three centuries in three consecutive ODIs. They are followed by the likes of Hales, Morgan, Stokes, Buttler, Woakes, Ali and even Rashid can hit some much needed big shots.
India needs to have individual plans for containing these players else, they might look at a total of 350 plus in every ODI while chasing and the same total won’t be good enough to defend against these bludgeoners of the cricket ball.
Earlier, English batsmen used to struggle against spin and India employed spin to counter them, but now, thanks to exposure in the IPL, most of the English batsmen have become adequately good against spin. Therefore, Virat Kohli might need some backup plans ready of they fail to execute their primary plans to the tee.
Scores of 300-310 won’t be enough this time
When India toured England last time, they won the five-match ODI series 3-1. However, times have changed since then and 300 is the new 250 in ODIs batting first. Nowadays teams need atleast 330-350 to feel safe under the new rules, smaller boundaries and field restrictions.
India at times settles for a score of 300-320 in ODIs and backs themselves to defend it. However, England has the batting power to chase down targets in the vicinity of 300-310 and this should ring some alarm bells for the Indian batting lineup, which gets complacent at times while batting first.
India will need to aim to make atleast 340 plus in every game they bat first, as English batting is going to hard at the Indian bowling and keeping that in mind, Indian batting needs to finish well. The onus of doing so will fall on shoulders of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Hardik Pandya.
Banking on spin or pace against England?
England is the land of medium pacers and fast bowlers swinging and seaming the ball to the oohs and aahs of the spectators. India will have the luxury of some of the best quick bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Siddharth Kaul who know how to swing and seam the ball in the English environment.
However, given the recent trend for Indian cricket, they demolished South Africa on fast pitches using the spin of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Now the dilemma for the Indian team management will be the choice of bowlers to go for against English batting.
Though English batting is traditionally weak against spin, however, the likes of Morgan, Buttler, and Bairstow have murdered spinners in ODI cricket; while foreign fast bowlers have done well against the same batting.
Now it comes down to choosing the luxury of pace or the art of spin to counter the attacking English batsmen and team management will have to balance both equally well for the team to succeed.
Record of Indian openers against England
It is safe to say that India will open in ODIs with Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, one of the premier opening combinations in the world. The Dhawan-Rohit duo has rewritten records as an opening pair, but individually, their record against England says a completely different story altogether.
Rohit Sharma has played 9 ODIs against England and has scored 198 runs at an average of 33.00 and two fifties and a best score of 83. Dhawan, on the other hand, has scored 237 runs in 9 matches against England with best of 97*.
Their record against England in England stands at 61 runs in 3 innings for Rohit with a best of 52 and 186 runs in 5 innings for Shikhar with a best of 97*. Clearly, though both have done tremendously well in England in tournaments like ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 and 2017; their records against England and in England against the hosts are far satisfactory from their overall records.
Rohit has a visible problem against swinging and seaming bowling on pitches helpful to good bowlers; while Dhawan has done comparatively well, but doesn’t go on to make a big one, after getting a start.
These two need to do well for India to succeed in ODIs against England, so team management needs to come up with a plan for the openers to neutralize the English fast bowlers.
