India v England 5 test series 2024 - Preview - Will England's bazball template work in India ?

   

The India vs England test series is set to begin at Hyderabad from 25th January 2024 . It is a 5 test series and it is a very important test series for both the teams from the point of view of World Test Championship 2023-25  cycle  points . 

Currently India are at the second spot and England who will be playing their first test series since the gruelling Ashes series that ended in a 2-2 draw . England had lost a lot of penalty points during that series due to slow over rates and thus they find themselves much below the points table . Hence they need nothing less than a convincing series win in India to make up for the penalty points lost .

However that is easier said than done as India are almost invincible in their home ground and have not lost a test series at home since 2012-13 when Alistair Cook's strong England team beat India in India 2-1 .  Now it remains to be seen whether Ben Stokes can lead his team to a similar triumph with their much talked about bazball approach . 

England 's bazball approach ( ultra aggressive batting approach) succeeded on true surfaces where there is less seam , swing and also spin. In India it is expected that spinning wickets will be prepared that will take turm from 3rd day onwards if not earlier . Therefore on these pitches the unbridled bazball approach may fall through as batters cannot always swing or hit through the line .

Going into the team compositions , England has a strong batting lineup with a wide array of stroke players.  It is expected that Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will open . Both the openers particularly Crawley was in aggressive mood in early innings in Ashes . Ollie Pope will play at 3 and Joe Root will play at four . Ben Stokes will play at 5 followed by Bairstow . It remains to be seen whether England will play Ben Foakes who is a more skilful  keeper or persist with the better batter Bairstow as a keeper .

With Stokes hardly bowling much these days due to his dodgy knee , England are likely to play 2 spinners in Rehan Ahmed and Jack Leach . They will choose their fast bowling group from Anderson, Wood , Robinson and Atkinson .

England definitely has a formidable pace bowling group but it remains to be seen how much they will get movement in the air and off the surface . If the pitches are too spin dominated then they may even play only 2 pacers and load the team with Leach , Rehan and Tom Hartley who is also a slow left armer . They have also called up Shoaib Bashir an off spinner from Somerset replacing Harry Brook. 

Harry Brook missing out the whole tour due to personal issues is a big blow to England.  Apart from the openers & Bairstow , Brook is the best exponent of bazball and plays aggressive brand of cricket . He was an outstanding success in Pakistan in 2022 tour but Indian pitches will be more spin friendly & less flat decks like Pakistan .

England's key performers in this series could be their batting mainstay  Joe Root who is a fine player of spin , Ben Stokes can produce both grafting knocks and outrageous attacking knocks . Also England needs good starts by openers and strong batting from the aggressive Bairstow . Their spinners are much less in strength and skills compared to the Indian spinners .

India on the other hand will miss Virat Kohli who will not play the first two tests due to personal reasons . However with a strong batting lineup for Indian conditions, India should be able to manage the absence of Kohli who has batted well in recent  South Africa tests . 

Rohit and Jaiswal will open for India . This is a very important series for the highly talented southpaw  Yashaswi  Jaiswal who had a dissappointing 2 tests in South Africa after a great debut in the West Indies. Rohit has taken up the attacking template across formats and hence it is important for the middle order comprising of Gill , Iyer and Rahul to provide solidity and score runs.  India is likely to play the specialist keeper Bharat since the tests are on the spinning decks . The hosts are likely to play all 3 of Axar , Jadeja and Ashwin  as the spinners while Bumrah and Siraj are likely to handle the fast bowling duties . Shami after a great world cup is currently going through fitness issues  and is likely to miss this series .

India are definitely the favourites to win this series as England will have to fight hard in spinning conditions to make their bazball formula  a success .

Following are the team squads of India and England in the upcoming Test Series 2024.

India Test Squad:

 Rohit Sharma (c) , Shreyas Iyer, K L Rahul, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal,  Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Srikar Bharat, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah.

England Test Squad: 

Ben Stokes (c) , Joe Root, Zak Crawley,  Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, Rehan Ahmed, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Ollie Pope, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, James Anderson, and Jack Leach.

Full schedule of India vs England Test Series 2024 below.

IND vs ENG 1st Test: Thursday, 25 January 2024 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad (9:30 am IST).

IND vs ENG 2nd Test: Friday, 02 February 2024 at Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam (9:30 am IST).

IND vs ENG 3rd Test: Thursday, 15 February 2024 at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot (9:30 am IST).

IND vs ENG 4th Test: Friday, 23 February 2024 at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi (9:30 am IST).

IND vs ENG 5th Test: Thursday, 7 March 2024 at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala (9:30 am IST).