England v India News and Tour Preview

England take on India, the number 1 ranked Test team in a 4 match Test Series. They will also play one Twenty20 and 5 ODI matches. Who will come out on top?

Tour Schedule

Thursday July 21st – First Test at Lord’sThursday July 29th – Second Test at Trent BridgeWednesday August 10th – Third Test at EdgbastonThursday August 18th – Fourth Test at the Kia OvalWednesday August 31st – NatWest International Twenty20 Match at Old Trafford ManchesterSaturday September 3rd – NatWest One Day Series, Match 1 at Emirates DurhamTuesday September 6th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 2 at The Rose Bowl SouthamptonFriday September 9th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 3 at The Kia Oval LondonSunday September 11th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 4 at Lord’s LondonFriday September 16th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 5 at The Swalec Stadium Cardiff

The first Test at Lord’s will be quite an historic event as this will be the 2000th Test Match in history, it will also be the 100th Test Match between England and India. Another piece of history that might be made will be concerning Sachin Tendulkar who has hit 99 centuries in his career but has yet to have one at the home of cricket.

England Squad

There are no surprises in England’s squad for the first Test. Strauss and Cook will open with Trott coming in at number 3, the next four batsmen will be Pieterson, Bell and Morgan. Matt Prior is the Test wicket keeper and the four bowlers will be Swann, Anderson, Tremlett and the selectors have a straight choice between Broad and Bresnan.

Swann and Anderson are ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively in the ICC bowling Test rankings, while Trott and Cook are ranked 4th and 5th in the ICC batting Test rankings.

India Squad

India have brought a 17 man squad over to England for the four match Test series, it includes the three batsmen who are in the top ten ICC rankings, Tendulkar (2nd), Laxman (6th) and Sehwag (8th). India also have three bowlers in ICC’s top ten and they are Sharma (8th), Singh (7th) and Khan (6th).

If you add players like wicket keeper and captain Dhoni, Yuvraj, Dravid and Gambhir you can understand why this Indian team are currently the top ranked Test team in the World.

Preview

After England’s 1-0 series win over Sri Lanka they now face sterner opposition in India who are currently World Champions in One Day cricket and the number one ranked Test team in the World. England’s bowlers will have to perform better than they did against Sri Lanka to take the necessary 20 wickets to win.

One thing that may well go against India is the lack of match practice for some of their squad. In their one warm up game against Somerset their top named batsmen and bowlers looked distinctly out of touch and will have to settle in at Lord’s very quickly.

If England can beat India by either 2-0 or 3-1 they will leapfrog over both South Africa and India to take ICC’s number one ranking in the world, however I believe this series will be a close one and may well end up as a draw.

In the 5 One Day matches it all points to an Indian victory, they have an extremely well balanced side, score runs quickly and usually bowl and field well. England will have to play at their very best to win and I can see India winning comfortably.

Source

Bbc/cricket – 07/20/2011