The Indian cricket team will leave for England on June 2 and will be in quarantine until June 12, which does not give them any match practice for the ICC World Test Championship.
Follow Us
Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team will be on English shores for close to four months when they arrive on June 2. They will be playing the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton on June 18. After that, there will be no action for the entire month of July. From August to September, India will play five Tests against England. The time spent prior to the series against England will be the longest for the side in a long time. The period might make them acclimatized for the series against England. However, there are big question marks over their preparation for the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand.
The Indian cricket team members have been busy in vaccinating themselves against the coronavirus pandemic. Virat Kohli and every cricket player got themselves vaccinated in the last couple of days. After this, the Indian team will enter a bio-bubble for eight days from May 25. On June 2, they will depart for England and be in quarantine for 10 days. They will be allowed to train but they will have no warm-up games.
On the other hand, when the Indian cricket team is busy shifting from bubble to bubble and quarantine, New Zealand will ace their preparations brilliantly. Most of the players who did not play the IPL are practicing at the high-performance centre in Lincoln. The New Zealand IPL players will head to England on May 15, already getting acclimatized.
There is one more ace up New Zealand’s sleeve. From May 25 till June 14, they will be playing three games. One is a warm-up match against Somerset in Taunton from May 25 to May 28. After that, New Zealand will play two Tests against England in Lord’s and Edgbaston. That will give them 13 days of match practice. India will have zero.
The lack of match practice for India might be a slight impediment. Man-to-man, the Indian cricket team is on par with New Zealand if not slightly better. The New Zealand pace quartet of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner are too good. Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and the possibility of either Shardul Thakur or Mohammed Siraj give the Indian bowling an edge.
In the all-rounder part, India are on top with Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin at their disposal. For New Zealand, Colin de Grandhomme could potentially fit in. In the Indian batting, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant are potent. The New Zealand batting will rely on Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor to deliver the goods.
What could go against India is the lack of adjusting to the conditions. In the series against Australia, they lost the first two ODIs before going on to dominate the tour. The time taken to acclimatize in Southampton might cost them. In the past, India have been slow starters on foreign tours. Although the time taken has reduced, the fact that India will jump into an ICC World Test Championship without any practice or acclimatization will be worrying.
India will be playing a Test match in the United Kingdom in June for the first time since 1996. In that series, India lost the first Test and drew the remaining two. Despite playing two ODIs prior to the Tests, they still could not acclimatize.
Virat Kohli’s team might not take that much time to get to the groove. However, in past tours to SENA countries, it has been seen that they have never won the first Test of the tour. The only exception was 2009 against New Zealand in Hamilton. If the stats are expanded, then 2003 Australia would also be included as the first Test was drawn.
In England, India has not won the first Test since 1986 while in 2007 and 1971, they drew the Test in Lord’s. India has a huge baggage of history in trying to start out a Test with a win in their first attempt in England. Having lost 11 out of 14 Tests since 2011, India would be hoping that they can overcome the conditions without much practice.
Rishabh Pant's explosive last-over blitz ignites IPL 2024 amid T20 World Cup comeback talks
