The few hundred spectators who turned up on the 4th day at Edgbaston on what turned out to be the last day of the match and the series against New Zealand cannot help but smirk as soon as the last England wicket fell of the very first ball. It summed up the performance or the lack of it of the English team in the series. New Zealand have thoroughly outplayed England in all the departments. What does this mean for India and their series against England? Not much really. England will be bolstered and so India must not be complacent against England.
The England and New Zealand series have ended with New Zealand emerging victorious. Former England captains have blasted the England team and rightly so. Most of the regular New Zealand chose to skip this test. Yes, England too were missing some of their players but they were playing at home.
“From what I’ve seen of this batting line-up, when the pressure comes on, the intensity of Test cricket, the scrutiny of it, they can’t handle it. When the pressure comes, they are not handling the mental pressure that you need to do” Cook said.
“It is a massive area of concern for me. They can’t arrive in Australia with a batting line-up this fragile – they’d have no chance. England have tinkered too much.” said Michael Vaughan
Hussain finds the technique of the young players complete wrong
“In cricket you will sometimes see one batsman with an unusual method — like Steve Smith with Australia — but to have four or five, as England do now, is just odd. Our batsmen really are trying to reinvent the wheel.
However, the point of this article is not to criticise England. This is about why India must not be complacent against England.
India’s past series in England was complete disasters
It does not take much to knock some sense into the Indian team. All one has to do is point to our record in England from 2007. We have played 3 series between then and now. The first series was in 2011. It was an absolute disaster. India lost the series 0-4. Some of those defeats were absolutely massive. Anyone and everyone on an England jersey came in and scored runs and picked up cheap wickets. Tim Bresnan, who is nowhere to be seen now, became such a massive player in that series. Ian Bell perhaps played the most consistent series of his career. Anderson, Broad and the rest of the bowlers helped themselves. The English batsmen scored a lot of double hundreds with Cook almost making it a triple.
In 8 completed innings, the Indians did not once score more than 300. There was only two hundred runs partnership and only 3 individual hundreds. All of them by Dravid. This series was humiliation at its best. The entire team ran out of ideas to stem the tide. The ignominy was complete when RP Singh, who had long stopped playing the game and was vacationing in The US, was called back into the team and played the very next day he landed in England.
Next tour to England in 2015
The next one in 2015 was only slightly better. India managed to win one test but were hammered in the rest of the series. Pankaj Singh, the Indian medium pacer, bowled 47 overs and did not pick up a single wicket. Gary Balance scored so many runs that he was thought to be a future star. Where is he now? No one knows. This series was another humiliation. Dhoni absolutely ran out of ideas to stop the free fall. Kohli and Pujara had a nightmare tour. Both went to England following a good outing for them in South Africa but were found wanting in England. Eventually, India lost the series 1-3.
And the next tour to England in 2018
The one in 2018 was another round of thrashing though the bowling was much better. If not for allowing Sam Curran to score those vital runs, India may even have won the series. He was the difference between the teams in that series. In that sense, it was a close series although we still lost the series 1-4. All of these goes onto show that England have proved to be a tough place for India.
During this period, India did win a couple of series in Australia and came really close in South Africa. However, England and New Zealand, is really challenging for the team.
Return of the first choice players
The second factor that must bring India to reality is the return of some of the first choice England players. Buttler, Stokes, Archer, Bairstow & Curran will bolster the fragile England middle order enormously. Archer with his pace will provide the backbone to the English bowling attack. Stokes we all know what he is capable of. Curran was the main difference between the sides in 2018. Bairstow and Buttler will add experience. Moreover, England must be smarting because of their defeat in India. They will want to exact revenge. Silverwood is on record stating that the pitches this season in England must be flat inorder for their bowlers to prepare for this year’s Ashes.
However, with the defeat against New Zealand, I am sure Silverwood will revisit this and will want seaming wickets so that his bowlers will be able to exploit that. Basically, he will want to escape criticism.
Hence, the Indians must prepare with seaming wickets on the back of their minds.
First stop is WTC
All of that the Indian team can start to worry about in the month of July. For now, the priority is WTC finals. New Zealand are in good form and they are buoyant after a successful series win. It is not any less significant when compared to India’s own series win against Australia in 2020. Both of them managed to vanquish their opponents with second string side. Off late, India do not have a good record against New Zealand. Both in tests and ODIs. It is important that India select the perfect team for the finals. If there needs some tough decisions, so be it. Winning is much more important.
Other reads related to England