Rohit Sharma’s India will face Ben Stokes-led England in the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, on January 25.
NewDelhi: As Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team prepare to face Ben Stokes’ England in the first Test of the five-match series at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, on January 25, the talk about Bazball’s efficiency on the Indian pitches is only going higher. However, legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar belives that England’s new style of playing red-ball cricket has great chance of being successful in this series.
It can work in India, it can. If you look at it, the boundaries have become smaller in the last few years. The bats have become better and better and even mishits are flying over the boundary,” Gavaskar said to Star Sports.
“I think the England batters will try to attack the spinners out of the game. They will try to hit them into the stands. Yes, they might get dismissed in the process, but you create a mentality. Our spinners also play a lot of T20 cricket. What’s your mentality in T20 cricket, there it’s okay if you don’t pick up wickets, but you are careful not to concede sixes or boundaries. Your flight and line, you tend to change it. Even in Test cricket if you are attacked at the start of your spell, if you concede a couple of sixes, there is a possibility that our spinners might try to reduce the flight and change the lines and lengths,” Gavaskar added.
England last won a Test series in India 12 years ago, where Alastair Cook was the captain and spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, along with Kevin Pietersen played leading roles in the 2-1 triumph. In the 2021 tour, England had won the opening Test in Chennai, but lost next three games to lose the series 3-1.
England are yet to lose a Test series under the Stokes-McCullum leadership group, but the tour of India will be the toughest challenge of their regime so far. The upcoming series between India and England will begin at Hyderabad on January 25, followed by other matches at Visakhapatnam (February 2-6), Rajkot (February 15-19), Ranchi (February 23-27) and Dharamshala (March 7-11).