Last Updated on 9 months ago by Charbel Coorey
ENG vs IND: 5 key battles that can decide series | 5 key player battles that can decide the England vs India Test series
The second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) is set commence in cracking fashion from the 4th of this month with India facing England in the first Test of the 5-match series at Nottingham.
With two strong teams scheduled to lock horns with each other, this series promises to be one full of twists and turns. Apart from the battle between the two sides, we will witness some magnificent contests between the players from both the sides. In this article, I am going to mention five such fascinating battles to watch out for that can turn the series in their team’s favour Here we go.
Ajinkya Rahane vs Stuart Broad
Ajinkya Rahane has struggled a lot against Stuart Broad in both India and England. Overall, Rahane averages just 16.5 against Broad with six dismissals, and five of those coming in England.
Broad was fabulous in the English summer last year and troubled the West Indies and Pakistan batsmen to the core by setting them up nicely. He got some appreciable seam movement off the pitch and used the wobbled-seam deliveries to perfection to bowl those lethal nip-backers. It will be interesting to see how Rahane deals with him in this series.
Jos Buttler vs Ishant Sharma
Jos Buttler, the English wicket-keeping batsman averages a mere 18 against Ishant Sharma. Ishant has dismissed Buttler five times in Test cricket with three of those dismissals being either lbw or bowled. So, it is quite clear that he targets the stumps against him and has been successful so far in doing so.
In the absence of Ben Stokes, Buttler has a key role to play for England, as he is their most experienced batsman after Joe Root. He is someone who can change the course of the match quickly by his extraordinary scoring abilities. So, his wicket is going to be a crucial one to pick for India and I am keen to see whether Ishant does this for India or not.
Rishabh Pant vs Jack Leach
Rishabh Pant literally loves bald spinners, right? Statistically, Pant has scored 88 runs off 59 balls against Leach, whilst being dismissed only once by the spinner. His boundary run percentage is a phenomenal 72.72 against Leach, which suggests that he looks to score a lot against him.
In England, it will be tougher for him to score against the likes of Anderson and Broad. So, he definitely will look to attack Leach whenever he faces him. This can also create opportunities for Leach to deceive Pant with his variations and make him play a false shot. There is a chance that Leach might get the advantage of bowling in big English grounds this time. I believe Root will take chances by employing Leach against Pant and we will witness this fascinating battle.
Rory Burns vs R Ashwin
R Ashwin has been a nightmare for almost all the left-handed batsmen around the world. He has so many variations in his armory to bamboozle the best in the business.
The experienced spinner dismissed Rory Burns thrice in the 4-match series played in India earlier this year. Also Ashwin, the new ball bowler, has a great reputation of picking crucial wickets. He troubled the great Alastair Cook with the new ball in India’s tour of England back in 2018. So, if the Indian seamers fail to pick the wicket of Burns with the new ball, Virat Kohli will most probably employ Ashwin early.
Burns is going to be the lone left-handed batsman in the English top order and middle order combined. So, if he gets out early, it can be advantageous for the Indian seamers as they will have to bowl only to the right-handed batsmen, which obviously will allow them to bowl in a particular channel consistently.
James Anderson vs Virat Kohli
This battle is definitely the main one to watch out for in a Test match between India and England. The two legends Virat Kohli and James Anderson will have a face-off yet again in this series and all eyes will be on these two to witness this historic rivalry.
Statistically, Kohli averages 47.2 against Anderson, but there was a time when Anderson had supreme dominance over the Indian captain. He dismissed Virat four times in the home series back in 2014, but has never been able to pick his wicket since then. Since 2016, Kohli has scored 194 runs against Anderson without dismissal. Although, some opportunities were missed by the English fielders, one can’t deny the fact that Virat has developed his technique to a great extent in order to tackle the English fast bowlers including the legend Anderson in their own den. This time it will be really interesting to see who edges the other in this most awaited battle.
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today.
