India vs England: From predictability of Bazball to new Indian era in Tests, reasons to watch series

What will be India’s Playing XI?

England have already named their playing XI for the first Test at Headingley. In the series defeat to Australia Down Under, India had taken just three full-time quicks through the series. But in England, under Shubman Gill there could be as many as four out-and-out pacers that could line up, Gill indicated.

“You can’t win a Test match without taking 20 wickets, no matter how many runs you have scored. So, that has been one of our key discussion points: how we’re gonna take 20 wickets. And there might be a case where we could only be going with some pure batters and you could see a bowling allrounder and three to four premier fast bowlers or proper bowlers.”

So how India line up will be a mystery that only unravels on Friday afternoon.

The predictability of Bazball

Ever since Brendon McCullum has taken over the reins of the England team, the side has done its best to entertain. Stats reveal that under coach McCullum, England have won 22 of their 35 Tests. 15 of those wins came at home (out of 20 matches). But the one stat that stands out is that England have drawn just one game out of 35 Tests with McCullum as coach. Even that game was a rain-affected one.

“It’s a matter of taking this team from a good team into being something English people are really proud of,” McCullum had said in an interview with the BBC Radio 5 Live Cricket show earlier this year.

England have had a run rate of 4.6 in the McCullum era, which is the best among all Test-playing nations since June 2022.

The numbers under captain Ben Stokes are also illustrative: England have won 23 Tests while losing 12 since Stokes took over from Joe Root as captain.

“We have a team identity about how we want to go out there and play the game,” Stokes told the BBC before the series against India. “We know that when we are on top of teams, we are very, very good, and where we maybe have let ourselves down in the past over the last three years is when we have been behind the game, we’ve not given ourselves the best chance of wresting ourselves back into the game, and that’s an area that we have looked at and know that we need to get better at if we want to end up being where we want to end up being as a team.

“We still want to be known as a team who play an exciting style of cricket. [It’s] not that we never wanted to win every game that we played, but it’s changing what we say and how we say it. We want to be playing exciting games of cricket because we know that’s what brings the best out of individuals and us as a team. But it’s about winning,” Stokes added.