Following their draw in the two-match Test series against South Africa, India will play five matches against England starting on January 25 in the World Test Championship (2023–25) cycle. In December 2023, England revealed their team for the series. They are eager to defeat India in a Test series held at home for the first time in twelve years. In an interview, England wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow discussed the kind of surfaces they might expect in India and said that creating spinning tracks will eliminate the seam menace.
The pitches will undoubtedly turn, but the question is whether or not they will do it right away, which could neutralize some of their seam attack power. Their might is known to us. India does not have to turn in order to produce a variety of pitches.
Jonny Bairstow stated on Sky Sports, “We’ve seen how effective their seam attack has been lately.
In addition, the 34-year-old recalled their previous series in India, where India rallied behind the spin tandem of Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin after England had taken the lead and won the first Test by a significant margin.
Clearly, Axar Patel and Ashwin performed admirably the previous time. You forget that after Rooty (Joe Root) scored a double (hundred) in the first Test match in Chennai, the players played incredibly well, and the situation improved significantly,” he continued.
The last Test series that England won over India was in 2012.
Notably, Ashwin claimed 32 wickets from eight innings at an economy of 2.50 and an average of 14.71 to conclude as the top wicket-taker of the final Test series between the two Indian sides in 2021. However, in his first series, Axar Patel finished with 27 wickets, which tied him for second place in the series as India triumphed 3-1.
In the meantime, Alastair Cook’s England defeated MS Dhoni and company by a margin of 2-1 in 2012 to become the last team to defeat India in a Test series at home. Ben Stokes and company will therefore draw some motivation from their former team to stop India’s lengthy home-winning streak.
India
