Things that have changed in the Indian Team since India last played a Test in England

The Indian Cricket Team is currently touring England for bilateral series in all three forms of the game. While the Indian Team defeated the England side quite convincingly in the T20Is, England were up to the mark in 50 overs Cricket and won the series despite losing the first game of the 3 match series. Thus it boils down to the Test Matches in August and September. It is easy to gauge that the team which wins the Test Series would be the happier side moving forward, having won 2 out of 3 series and the all-important Test Series. However, it would count as a bigger achievement for the Indian side if they manage to win against England in England in a 5 Test Series.

The England tour has always been a significant one for the Indian Team and a lot has changed since India last played a Test Series in England. Here is a look at things that have changed in the Indian Team since India last played a Test in England.

Captain

Cook and Dhoni posing with the trophy ahead of the 2014 Series

In 2014, when the Indian Team played a Test Series in England, Captain Cool MS Dhoni was still in charge of the team's proceedings on the Cricket Field. Obviously then, he was also the first choice wicket-keeper.

Under Mahi's captaincy, India did manage to win a historic Test Match at Lords. However, that was clearly not enough as Indians struggled for the majority of the tour and lost the series 3-1. In fact, Dhoni's captaincy record against England is one of the poorest, winning only 3 Tests while conceding 9 losses as captain.

England’s Joe Root was the leading run scorer in the series while James Anderson picked up the highest number of wickets in a series which was clearly dominated by England.

In Head to Head Test Records, India have only managed to win 25 Tests while losing out on 43 occasions in as many as 117 Tests, the highest number of Tests that India has played against a Test playing nation.

Bowlers

Even after getting an India call-up on quite a few occasions, Pandey never made his debut for India

Last time India went to England in 2014, the Indian Test squad consisted of fast bowlers like Varun Aaron, Ishwar Pandey, and Pankaj Singh. In a country where there is a dearth of fast bowlers, Varun Aaron burst onto the scene when he clocked a few deliveries above 150 Kilometers an hour in a domestic match. The Jharkhand lad, Varun, impressed everyone with his speed but his injury-prone body and inaccurate bowling hasn’t helped his case. The fact that he has bowled at an average of above 50 in 9 Tests hasn’t helped either. At 28, Varun may still get a chance to play for India, if he shows the same spark again in domestic cricket.

Ishwar Pandey on the other hand, though named in Indian squads on quite a few occasion,s never got an opportunity to debut for India. A tall well-built pacer Pandey would deceive the bowlers because of the extra bounce he would generate from the wicket because of his height and shoulders. However, he wasn’t tried in International Matches.

Though Pankaj Singh got a chance in the 2014 Tour, he couldn’t quite make the full use of it and never really made it back to the Indian Team. Arguably past his prime, Pankaj may not get to play for India again but featured in 2 Tests for Indian Team in the 2014 Tour and picked up a couple of wickets.

Such bowlers have been replaced by the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur in this tour. Hopefully, for Indian Cricket, all these players would deliver on the promise shown by them in domestic leagues and in limited overs cricket.

Batsmen

Rohit Sharma has lost his place in the Test squad

In the 2014 Test Series, a couple of big names of Indian Cricket were part of the Test Squad- Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma. While the southpaw (Gambhir) hasn’t been amidst the runs and that has been the reason for his exclusion from the squad, Rohit Sharma isn’t the Hitman that we all know in white clothing. Sharma’s statistics clearly show that he loves limited overs cricket more.

Despite being a vital member of the Indian ODI and T20I team, however, he has struggled in Test Cricket for quite some time now. Given the talent associated with Sharma, he might get one more chance sooner or later but in the squad for the first 3 Tests, Rohit is definitely not going to join the Indian team.

Batsmen like the Karnataka duo of Karun Nair and KL Rahul have got the place in the team this series. Although Rahul has looked in good touch in the past few months, Nair is coming after a break and would like to grab his chance with both hands.

Wicket-keepers

Ojha is not in the selection scene anymore

With MS Dhoni in the side, he automatically fits in as the wicketkeeper choice. However, after he retired from Test Cricket, Wriddhiman Saha has been the go-to keeper. Even in the 2014 tour, Saha went in as the reserve keeper along with Madhya Pradesh’s Naman Ojha. Although Saha is still very much in business and couldn’t make to this tour only because of an injury, Naman Ojha is not in the selection scene as of now. Even in the Indian Premier League, earlier this year, Ojha found himself on the bench more often than not.

The likes of Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant have taken over that spot.

All-Rounder

Binny may not find himself in the Indian team anytime soon

Karnataka all-rounder and son of famous cricketer Roger Binny, Stuart Binny was part of the Indian squad that toured England in 2014. However, with his largely unimpressive show, Binny was soon dropped from the team. Stuart may not come back to the Indian team anytime soon.

Fast bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya has assumed a similar role in this series for India and is expected to do the job for the team.