England versus India: Root-Bumrah battle, new captain Gill, but no Kohli for tourists
England and India will go head-to-head over the next six weeks without the cricketing royalty of James Anderson or Virat Kohli for the first time in two decades, but that does not make the five-Test series any less appealing.
Two of cricket's 'Big Three' — Australia being the other — have much to prove this summer. India, the fanatical cricket country, against England, the founding fathers of the game, will be a clash of styles.
Advertisement
And this time, the winning prize has been handed a new name, with The Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy — in tribute to former England bowler James and India's greatest batter, Sachin — instead of the Pataudi Trophy.
The first Test is at Headingley, Leeds, and begins on Friday.
Joe Root and Jasprit Bumrah reflect the beauty of Test cricket, the sport's longest and oldest format, with the battle between bat and ball.
Root, 34, remains at the peak of his powers, having scored the most runs of any England player and the fifth-most of any male cricketer in Test history. He has just passed the 13,000 mark and is the only player in the top 12 of run-scorers still in action. He may be the only man now or in the future — owing to the decreasing number of Test matches being played — to have a shot at surpassing Tendulkar's record of 15,921 runs.
Bumrah became the first bowler to pick up 200 wickets while conceding fewer than 4,000 runs. He has a unique bowling action but unerring accuracy, speed and takes wickets, whatever the surface. At 31, and with the packed schedule, he is likely to be rotated over the series, but Root versus Bumrah will be box office.
England opening batter Ben Duckett has started the summer in imperious form. He has become instrumental in setting the tempo at the start of an innings since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes became coach and captain in the summer of 2022.
India's equivalent, Yashasvi Jaiswal, also left-handed, is 23, but has established himself as one of cricket's most enthralling players, with four Test hundreds and standout performances against England and Australia. He averages 52.88 across 19 Tests.
Sai Sudharsan's first-class statistics don't jump off the page, but he is being tipped for big things on his first tour. The 23-year-old's ability to flick the switch has contributed to his success in the Indian Premier League, where he was the leading run scorer in this year's competition, with 759 at an average of 54.21. It led to a maiden Test call-up for the left-hander and he has experience in English conditions, having played for Surrey in the County Championship.
Advertisement
Karun Nair is back in India's squad following an eight-year hiatus. The 33-year-old played in six Tests for India in 2016 and 2017, but batted only seven times. One of those innings was an unbeaten triple-century against England in Chennai, but his other six innings brought 71 runs and a highest score of only 26.
Having been on the periphery domestically, too, a move to Vidarbha in 2023 kickstarted his comeback. He made 863 runs at 53.93 in a title-winning domestic campaign and five hundreds in eight innings at a staggering average of 389.50 in the 50-over competition.
His experience could prove vital given the absence of…
The 3-1 series defeat in Australia at the turn of the year marked a changing of the guard, as some of India's superstars called an end to glittering careers.
Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin retired midway through the series, before captain Rohit Sharma followed, failing to score more than 10 in each of his final five innings and averaging just 24 over the past year.
But those retirements were nothing compared to the news of Kohli's Test retirement in May. The 36-year-old, who scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85 in 123 Tests, is one of the finest players of his generation and, along with Rohit, had captained his country to the top of the sport in all formats.
The captaincy has been given to batter Shubman Gill, 25, a fine top-order player who is easy on the eye, but now contemplating one of the most pressured jobs in sport. He will have to vastly improve a poor record in England, where he averages just 14.66 from six innings.
No team has scored runs at a faster rate in Test matches than England since Stokes and McCullum took over.
The duo's mantra of not playing for draws lends itself to their broader mindset of refusing to take a backwards step. Together, the novel approach has made the cricketing world take sharp notice, intent on putting pressure on the opposition. 'Bazball' is a style rarely seen, even if McCullum is not a fan of the term derived from the media.
At the age of 42, Gautam Gambhir was fast-tracked from former Test opener into India's youngest head coach. His approach contrasts with McCullum's laid-back manner.
Gambhir does not smile a lot. He can be a blunt, intense character fixated on a team-first approach and unwilling to pander to India's star individuals.
Advertisement
Critics of his will argue that his disciplinarian style can lead to him being unapproachable, but early questions regarding his suitability have quietened, with India winning this year's Champions Trophy tournament. The achievement did carry caveats, though, given that circumstances were skewed in India's favour. They played every match outside of the host country of Pakistan due to the conflict between the two countries and, instead, became familiarised with the same surface in Dubai.
The wicketkeeper returned to cricket in 2024, more than a year on from a car crash that led to former India player and head coach Ravi Shastri describing the fact Pant could walk again, let alone play cricket, as a 'miracle'.
In December 2022, Pant's car collided with a barrier, flipped and caught fire. After being airflifted to Mumbai for surgery, Pant sustained several injuries, including knee ligament damage, a badly broken leg, wrist and ankle issues, and gashes to his back.
Pant's recovery was remarkable, playing a part in India's T20 World Cup victory in early 2024 before attuning himself back to the pace of Test cricket in Australia. Pant, 27, is one of the most dangerous and eye-catching wicketkeeper-batters in the world and has had success in England.
England have made no secret that their bowling mindset has changed. The success of every regime hinges on The Ashes — especially in light of usual away hammerings — with the lack of bowling threat seen as a common problem.
In attempts to address those issues in Australia, England have revamped the profile of their fast bowling battery. England's great duo of Anderson and Stuart Broad have retired, and in their place are a group of inexperienced but promising bowlers.
Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue will hit the pitch hard, key on Australia's quick, bouncy surfaces, while Essex's Sam Cook, who made his debut against Zimbabwe last month, is more in the Anderson mould of relying on swing and seam movement.
Advertisement
Chris Woakes is the only bowler in the squad to have played more than 10 Tests. England's most express bowlers, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, have suffered regular injury issues and relying on either to feature in the series is a risk. Without them, however, England are far less threatening.
First Test: June 20-24, Headingley, Leeds, starts 11am (6am EST)
Second Test: July 2-6, Edgbaston, Birmingham, starts 11am (6am EST)
Third Test: July 10-14, Lord's, London, starts 11am (6am EST)
Fourth Test: July 23-27, Old Trafford, Manchester, starts 11am (6am EST)
Fifth Test: July 31-August 4, The Oval, London, starts 11am (6am EST)
England (playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
India (squad): Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vice captain and wicketkeeper), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (reserve wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.
England have backed Ollie Pope to carry on where he left off against Zimbabwe by picking him ahead of Jacob Bethell in the key No 3 position for the first Test against India.
The vice captain is coming under increasing pressure for his place from Bethell, who made a huge impression in New Zealand last winter after Pope was forced to take the wicketkeeping gloves in the absence of Jamie Smith and then the injured Jordan Cox.
But Pope retained his place for the one-off game against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge last month when England allowed Bethell to stay at the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and he responded with 171 against arguably the worst team in Test cricket.
Advertisement
Now England have stuck with Pope in their XI for the first Test of this marquee five-match series at Headingley and have named a specialist bowling attack in the absence of the extreme pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer — consisting of Chris Woakes, Josh Tongue, Brydon Carse and spinner Shoaib Bashir.
The decision over Bethell, 21, has the feel of England just delaying the inevitable promotion of a gifted batsman, which may deny him valuable experience against a strong India side ahead of this winter's Ashes series against Australia.
But it is a move defended by Rob Key, the managing director of England men's cricket. 'It's not straight-forward, but I think Bethell will gain so much by playing in the IPL,' Key told The Athletic.
'It's no surprise he came out and played how he did against West Indies (in subsequent white-ball games for England). He spent two months with Virat Kohli. I don't regret him being out there at all. He's going to have an outstanding international career and you can't put a price on the experience he will have had out in India.
His time will come in the Test side.'
The series will be on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Willow TV in North America.
Click here to follow cricket on The Athletic and see more stories like this.
Additional reporting: Anantaajith Raghuraman
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
New arrival picked as potential 'player of the tournament' for Chelsea
The London is Blue podcast are in Atalanta right now getting ready to watch Chelsea kick off at the Club World Cup, and they picked out two new players they're really excited to see in Blue in the coming weeks. Santos (and Essugo) picked as ones to watch by podcast fans Presenter Nick Verlaney had one player on his mind above all others: Advertisement 'Andrey Santos. He is going to do really well… I just look at him, he's coming off this great season,' Verlaney said. 'I think he's going to be our player of the tournament, I think he's really going to step up. And he's going to need to, right. With the balance of resting your players, you're not going to be able to get away with playing Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, obviously Romeo Lavia hasn't shown himself fit enough to take over one of their spots alone. 'Watching the midfield in this tournament is going to be fascinating, I'm super excited to see what Andrey Santos does and what Dario Essugo does.' You can see their thoughts in the clip embedded here: Chelsea's 2 new boys will be thrown right into the mix We totally agree, and we agree with their logic too. Caicedo and Fernandez were among the most used players last season, AND they've just been playing international games. The management team will be looking to play them as little as possible, especially in the group stages, and that means the likes of Santos and Essugo stepping up right from the jump. Advertisement Starting against LAFC is a nice introduction, Flamengo should be a little tougher, but then Tunis to close out the group is another soft one. Ideally we can make it to the knockout stage with a minimum of minutes played for our first choice central midfielders.
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- Washington Post
Australia drops Labuschagne, Smith out injured for cricket test series opener in the West Indies
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Marnus Labuschagne has been dropped and injured Steve Smith has been ruled out of the Australia lineup for next week's series-opening cricket test against the West Indies. Cricket Australia on Friday said Smith would miss the opening match of the three-test seies because of a finger injury sustained in the World Test Championship final loss to South Africa last weekend at Lord's. He is expected to be fit for the second test against the West Indies.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bayer Leverkusen loan could be key to unlocking the N'golo Kante in Man United's Toby Collyer
Bayer Leverkusen loan could be key to unlocking the N'golo Kante in Man United's Toby Collyer Heading into the 2024-25 season, one Manchester United academy star tipped for a breakout campaign was Toby Collyer. Back in 2023, just after United lifted the Carabao Cup, then-head coach Erik ten Hag was seen deep in conversation with Kobbie Mainoo. Advertisement Enter 2023–24: Mainoo, despite an early-season injury, went on to fight his way into becoming a dependable first-team regular. His resurgence culminated in a Man of the Match display in United's 2-1 FA Cup final win over Manchester City, earning him FA Cup Player of the Season honours. And so, following that success, it felt like déjà vu when, after that FA Cup final, Ten Hag was again seen chatting with Toby Collyer. Social media buzzed with speculation. Was Ten Hag ready to unearth another gem? Was Collyer about to enjoy his own 'Mainoo season' in 2024-25? Unfortunately, things did not go as planned for the young Red Devil. Collyer's 2024-25 did not go to plan: Ten Hag sacking and injuries United's early struggles in 2024–25 held back his progression. Ten Hag's dismissal also didn't help his case. Advertisement With the Dutch tactician gone, any progression plan laid out for the midfielder seemed to evaporate. Although new head coach Ruben Amorim was expected to implement the midfielder's progression plan, that did not happen immediately. Amorim's task was to steady a faltering United side, and understandably, taking a chance on an unproven player was not a top priority. To complicate matters further, Collyer then endured two separate injuries (a leg injury followed by a knock) that sidelined him for most of the second half of the season. He did manage 12 senior appearances, including a headline-grabbing debut against Liverpool and a goal-saving late cameo against Fulham, but there's little doubt: 2024–25 was not his season. So what now for Collyer? United are set for a squad rebuild this summer. New signings are expected, and several names could make way. Advertisement Collyer may not be one of those to be moved on as he remains highly regarded at Carrington — but is he truly in Amorim's plans? He could be if the former Sporting Lisbon boss is seeking his own N'Golo Kanté. 'He could do two jobs in one, and his ball retention was different class. You don't get midfielders like him anymore,' former Liverpool Women's manager Matt Beard told the MEN when asked about a team that might benefit from Collyer's services. 'He was sort of like (N'Golo) Kanté for Leicester. You need balance in a team. If you had three Kobbie Mainoos, you can't play them all. You need a combination, and Toby will do stuff Mainoo won't. He will break the play up and get the ball to Mainoo.' Advertisement But it's hard to see Amorim viewing it the same way. With pressure mounting for United to return to their best, team selections are bound to be critical. Reports linking Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney with a move only reinforce the sense that Collyer may find it difficult to break into the first team in the short term. And with Amorim admitting recently that, without European football, he doesn't need a large squad, proven talents will likely be favoured over promising prospects. Another season on the bench will not do for Collyer For regular game time, a season-long loan with no obligation to buy could be the best way forward. Advertisement One can only hope Ten Hag is quick to take him to Bayer Leverkusen. The Dutchman saw potential in Collyer and might know just how to unlock it. The familiarity, combined with a move to a side that still employs a 3-4-2-1 system (if Ten Hag persists with it), could be perfect for the 21-year-old. Collyer could thrive in the Bundesliga. Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham have already shown how well English talents adapt to German football. A full season in a familiar system could help Collyer rediscover rhythm, develop further, and return ready to take on the Premier League. If not, he could still be sold for a premium (like Bellingham and Sancho were), funds that INEOS could reinvest to help Amorim build his ideal United squad. Feature image Shaun Botterill via Getty Images Follow us on Bluesky: @
