ENG vs IND: Who will be the trump cards for these 2 teams? | Which players could be surprising packets in the ENG vs IND Test series?
India looked well-poised to do something historic in the test series during the tour to England in 2018. However, as circumstances would have it, a then 20-year-old Sam Curran turned the series on its head with both the bat and the ball.
Having prepared to face the premier English pacers in James Anderson and Stuart Broad, Curran’s skillful left-arm pace and flamboyant abilities with the willow was a question out of the textbook for the Indian players.
With the start of the next series between the two heavyweights upon us, one wonders which players could turn out to be the trump cards for their respective teams this time around.
India
Hanuma Vihari:
Hanuma Vihari has been in-and-out of the test XI owing to intense competition for spots. However, the batsman has done well to certify his selection whenever he has been drafted in the playing XI.
Polished with years of experience in the domestic circuit, Vihari is not averse to encountering difficult conditions and finding his way to tackle them. He is a gritty batsman with terrific temperament, something that often comes of use in guiding the tail-end and adding valuable runs whilst batting in the lower middle-order.
Vihari debuted in Test cricket during India’s previous tour to England in 2018, and even scored a fine half-century in the fifth game at the Oval. He will look to build upon that further cement his spot in the XI, provided the batsman from Andhra Pradesh gets some opportunities down the series.
Washington Sundar:
Washington Sundar might not be in the initial frame of things for the Indian team, given that frontline spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will already be contending for spots in the XI. But, these are Covid times and packed schedules mean that injuries can often throw up interesting playing XIs on the ground; much similar to the Border-Gavaskar series late last year.
On that note, Sundar has demonstrated significant batting performances in the whites. The poise, class and character with which he has dealt with the best of bowlers in his short test career so far shows that there is much more to Sundar than it initially catches the eye.
Also, questions are raised over his spin-bowling qualities, but he can very well hold an end up and could scalp a dismissal or two with his disciplinarian and consistent approach. On that note, Sundar can also resolve India’s tail-end batting issues and hence be a trump card for the Indian team.
England
Ollie Pope:
The Indian team has always encountered difficult challenges against newbie opposition batsmen in away tours. Ollie Pope is not exactly inexperienced as such, considering he already has 19 Test caps under his belt.
However, the flamboyant batsman can be a big threat in the lower-middle order for the Indian pacers, who anyways have had long troubles in settling the scores with the backend batsmen of the opposition. Pope can brilliantly take on the opposition, and his proactive and attacking attitude means that he can take the game away from the opposition within a session or two.
Pope has brilliant abilities in a way that he has managed to amalgamate his natural attacking batting style with the demands of test cricket. If he manages to further that approach successfully in the coming series, the Indian bowling unit will have their task cut out throughout the series. He is out of the first Test, but has the potential to make an impact later.
Haseeb Hameed:
Haseeb Hameed had a fantastic debut tour to India in 2016 but went through a terrible phase in his career thereafter. Much like India, England has had an opening order conundrum for quite some time. Whilst Rory Burns is a permanent fixture, Haseeb could be expected to partner him later after he struck a terrific century in the practice game against the Indian squad last week.
Haseeb had shown some fine class in that 2016 tour, when he was merely 19 years old. Despite the difficult times that he went through after that, the batsman seems to have come out of it handsomely and quite stronger as well.
Moreover, the refined abilities in his overall batting prowess would be quite concealed from the Indian team, which could make him a tough nut to crack too. Even in 2016, he had put a lot of value in his wicket and Haseeb will have even more ammunitions in his armour five years down the line. Could he become another query out of the books that can worry the Indian setup? Let us see!
Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter
