The 5 test match series between India and England will start from tomorrow i.e. 25th January. The first match will be held at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Virat Kohli from India will not be able to play the first 2 tests and Harry Brook from England will not be able to play the entire series. There are many players in both the teams who have the power to change the course of the match on their own. We will learn about 8 such game changers of the match in this story.
35 year old Virat Kohli will be available from the third match of the series. Kohli has so far scored 8,848 runs in 113 Tests for India, which includes 29 centuries and 30 fifties. He is India's top run scorer among active batsmen. He was also the top run scorer of Team India in the last Test series against South Africa.
He has scored 2,483 runs in 38 Tests against England, which includes 4 centuries and 16 fifties. In Asian conditions, he has scored 4,597 runs in 59 Tests, which is the highest among Indian players in the current squad. He is also the highest run-scorer Indian in the 2023-25 World Test Championship. He has 369 runs in his name in 4 tests.
Team India captain Rohit Sharma has been among India's top-3 scorers in the last 2 years. He scored 635 runs in 10 tests by scoring 2 centuries and 2 fifties. Virat was at number one and Rishabh Pant was at number two.
Rohit has scored 3,737 runs in 54 tests for India. After Virat's departure, he is the most experienced batsman left in the current squad. After him Ravichandran Ashwin has scored more than 3,000 runs. Even in Asian conditions, Rohit has scored 2,210 runs by scoring 8 centuries.
Rohit showed his attacking approach in the recent T20 series against Afghanistan. He could not do anything special in South Africa, but before that he was the second top scorer in the ODI World Cup. Last year, he scored a century against Australia on the difficult pitch of Nagpur, hence he is an important batsman for India even on difficult spinning pitches.
In bowling, England will find it difficult to overcome Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. On the spin pitches of India, these are the spinners who can change the course of the match at any time. Ashwin is the best spinner in the world at present. He has taken 387 wickets in Asia and can cross the 400 wicket mark in the series.
World number-1 bowler Ashwin in Test is at the top in terms of taking most wickets for the team in the last two years. He has 88 wickets in his name in just 19 Tests against England, which is the highest among active Indian bowlers. He has also dismissed England captain Ben Stokes the maximum number of times (11) in the longest format of cricket.
Ashwin is just 10 wickets away from 500 Test wickets, he has 490 wickets in 95 Tests to his name. He is the second active spinner in the list of top wicket takers. Australia's Nathan Lyon is ahead of him. Ashwin has taken 10 or more wickets 8 times in a match, while he has the record of taking 5 or more wickets 34 times in an innings.
Star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is the number-1 Test all-rounder in the ICC rankings. Along with the ball, he is also effective with the bat. So far, he has scored 2,804 runs along with taking 275 wickets in 68 Tests. He has taken 207 wickets in Asia and in the last home Test series against Australia, he took 22 wickets. He has taken 51 wickets against England in just 16 tests.
In the last 2 years, he has taken 43 wickets in just 10 tests. He also had 609 runs in his name during this period. He has also scored 2 centuries in his Test career in the last 2 years only. Left arm spinner Akshar Patel had troubled England a lot on the last tour. This time along with Akshar, Team India's best left arm spinner Jadeja will also challenge England.
England's top order batsman Joe Root is the most successful English cricketer against India. He has scored 2,526 runs in 25 Tests, which include 9 centuries and 10 fifties. After scoring 30 runs in the Root series, he will also become the foreign batsman who has scored the most runs against India. Ahead of him is Australia's Ricky Ponting, who has scored 2,555 runs.
For England, he has scored 11,416 runs in 135 Tests with the help of 30 centuries and 60 fifties. He is the top run scorer among active players. In Asia, he has scored 2,117 runs in just 23 tests. He has also scored 5 centuries and 10 fifties in spin conditions.
Even in the last 2 years, Root has scored 1,885 runs in total by playing 23 Tests. In which 7 centuries and 7 fifties were also included. Root had also taken 5 wickets in the innings on the last tour of India, so he is effective with bowling also.
England team captain Ben Stokes has scored 6,117 runs in his 10-year career. He scored 13 centuries and 30 fifties in 97 tests. He has taken 197 wickets with his pace bowling. Stokes has scored 773 runs in 16 Tests against India at an average of 26.65. Which includes one century and 4 fifty. He has taken 39 wickets in bowling.
In Asia, he has 1,124 runs in just 20 tests. Which includes one century and 7 fifty. On the last tour of Asia against Pakistan, he made the team win the Test series with very aggressive batting and captaincy.
However, Stokes has not been successful in India till date. He will not be able to bowl against India and Ravichandran Ashwin has dismissed him a maximum of 11 times in his career. But with his experience and captaincy, he can make the team win the Test series in India after 12 years.
Left arm spinner Jack Leach is the most experienced spinner in the England squad, with 124 wickets to his name. The English team has come to India with young spinners like Rehan Ahmed, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley. Rehan has played one test, while the other two could not even debut. Part-time spinner Joe Root is the second most successful spinner in this England squad with 60 Test wickets. He also has the record of taking 5 wickets in India.
Leach has taken 19 wickets in 5 tests against India. He is the English spinner who has taken the most wickets in the last two years. He took 60 wickets in 17 Tests at an economy of 2.97. He has taken 61 wickets in 12 Tests in Asian conditions.
Team India's batsmen have been in a lot of trouble against left arm spinners in the last few years. Australia's Matthew Kuhneman had also troubled Team India a lot on the last tour. In such a situation, this India tour for Leach can prove to be the best tour of his career.
The most experienced bowler of the English squad, 41-year-old James Anderson, is just 10 wickets away from 700 Test wickets. He is the pacer with the highest number of 690 wickets in Test cricket. Anderson is adept at swinging the new ball as well as reverse swinging the old ball.
Anderson is also just 11 wickets away from taking 150 Test wickets against India. He played an important role in the victory against India by taking 5 wickets in the first test on the last tour. Anderson has 82 wickets in his name in Asia and he is also the most successful bowler of the team here. In the last 2 years, he has taken 51 wickets in only 15 tests.
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar. , Jasprit Bumrah (Vice Captain) and Avesh Khan.
Ben Stokes (captain), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Shoaib Bashir, Jack Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root and Mark Wood.
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