Spinners, Form and DRS: Talking Points of the India-England Tests

England were the last team to beat India in a Test series at home, in 2012.

Receiving the the Test mace, Diwali with family and the skipper’s birthday - the Indian Test team have had a lot of reason to celebrate over the last month. And come Wednesday, they will look to continue that streak.

England are back touring the subcontinent. After a below par stop-over in Bangladesh, Alastair Cook’s coterie now take on Virat Kohli’s champions in the opener in Rajkot on Wednesday.

There’s lots of literature on our site on the topic, but here’s a five-point primer on the big talking points.

1. History

On June 25 1932, India made their debut in international cricket with a three-day game against England at The Lord’s. The hosts won the match by 158 runs.

Even since, the two teams have faced-off in 112 fixtures in whites, with England bagging 43, India winning 21 and 48 ending in no results. However, since the turn of the century, the teams have been involved in eight bilateral Test series with both winning three each and two series ending in draws.

England, though, have won the last three series against India on the trot. Among the trophies they picked up was on their last tour of India in 2012/13. The 2-1 sweep was also India’s last Test series defeat at home.

The world number one side have since beaten Australia, West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand at home.

2. Recent Form

Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin’s performance and lifting the Test mace after the series whitewash of New Zealand are memories unlikely to be forgotten very easily by the long-form loyalists.

Fast forward two weeks and we cut to Rajkot with India practising with a spring in their step and needing just to draw the five-match series to ensure they end the year as world number one.

England on the other hand are still reeling from the shock of their first-ever Test defeat to Bangladesh just last week. After winning the first fixture, Cook and company lost the second test in Dhaka inside three days to a team that is ranked ninth in the world.

3. Spinners

When England last toured India in 2012/13, they lost the opener in Ahmedabad but then went on to shut the hosts out with a 2-1 scoreline at the end of the four-match series.

With batsmen matching each other shot-for-shot on both sides, it was the bowling department that made the difference. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar in particular. Twenty wickets were scalped by Swann’s off-spin and left-armer Monty too stayed on his heels with 17 wickets in three matches, giving the Indian batsmen a tough fight in conditions known well to them.

In the four years since, however, both spinners have rested their wrists and England landed in India last week with Moeen Ali spearheading the spin department. For company, he has a 39-year-old Gareth Batty who’s returning to international cricket after 11 long years and played just the one match in Bangladesh. Zafar Ansari and Adil Rashid will have to dig deep to challenge Virat’s line-up.

On the fast bowling front, 34-year-old James Anderson has managed to regain full command of his injured shoulder to make an appearance in possibly his last India series. However, England’s leading wicket-taker in Tests will not be featuring in the opener.

4. Indian Batting

Speaking of Virat’s line-up and somewhere at the top is where Kohli may have his biggest concerns as India draw up their team sheet on Wednesday morning.

Murali Vijay will be holding fort at one end but with injuries to KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir will most likely be walking out at the top for India. The Delhi opener made his comeback to the international set-up after two long years during the series against New Zealand, and managed a half-century in the one outing he got. He will however have some old bruises he would want to forget, the aborted tour of England in 2014 being his last international outing before the call-up.

Also missing from the line-up going at least for the next three months is Rohit Sharma who has travelled to London to have his thigh looked up. Karun Nair and Hardik Pandya are two new faces who could take up his spot.

5. DRS

One of the few parties in cricket India was last to join, the Decision Review System will make its debut in India this time round.

After consistently opposing the referral system which all other countries have adopted in bilateral contests, the BCCI recently relented and has decided to use it on an experimental basis. Skipper Kohli is confident his wards will not be much challenged by the innovations

Well, there is no rocket science in DRS. As a cricketer you understand, you have a fair idea of where the ball has hit the pad, whether it has pitched in line or hit in line. Those are pretty basic things in cricket. You don’t have to necessarily go through a course for DRS

Virat Kohli, Indian Test Captain

England though are no strangers to the machine that overturns. In their recent tour of Bangladesh, the opening match on Chittagong’s turning tracks saw 26 reviews in total with Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena having 16 of their calls sent up. Eight of those were overturned.

Will the Indian team utilise it as much? Will the English need it enough?

First Test starts Wednesday!