Ben Stokes-led England are set to embark on a five-match Test tour to India later this month. On England’s last Test assignment in India in 2021, they lost 1-2.
In the past couple of years, the English side has been playing an aggressive brand of cricket under Stokes’ captaincy and Brendon McCullum’s coaching. They have gone for the jugular in their matches and taken quite a few brave calls that have captivated the cricket fraternity. Fans are waiting to see how England’s all-or-nothing approach fares in Indian conditions. It is important to note that England were the last team to beat India in their backyard in a Test series. Alastair Cook and Co. achieved the commendable feat back in 2012.
England are scheduled to arrive in India just three days before the first Test in Hyderabad, starting on Thursday, January 25. Several experts have raised their concerns over the England team’s lack of preparation ahead of the challenging tour, stating that it could come back to haunt them. Mark Butcher echoed the same school of thought as he said that most of the players have not played red-ball cricket for a very long time and that could prove to be detrimental to their chances.
“Frankly, I’d be a little bit terrified if I was playing. Most of the guys haven’t played any long-form cricket since July. Very few of the squad were involved a great deal in the rundown of the County Championship, which finished at the back end of September. We’re now three months down the road with nobody having had any sort of middle practice at all,” Butcher said on Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast.
There’s no real reason why they couldn’t have spent three weeks in India leading up to the series: Mark Butcher
Stokes and Co. will be making their preparations for the tour during their 11-day camp in Abu Dhabi. Since McCullum took over the role of England’s red-ball head coaching, the team has refrained from playing practice games ahead of Test assignments. The fifth Ashes Test match in July 2023 was the last time England played the longest format of the game.
Butcher warned that England could face severe criticism if things don’t go their way on the India tour as their preparation wasn’t adequate.
“Everybody believes that going to India that you’re unlikely to win a five-Test match series in India, right? But what people will be less likely to be gentle about is if you go there without having done the requisite getting ready for it and then get battered. That’s kind of inexcusable. Particularly given the huge gap that there has been for the Test team between July and now whereby there’s no real reason why they couldn’t have spent three weeks in India leading up to the series,” Butcher said.
Pitches are expected to be titled in favour of the spinners, and England batters are going to have their tasks cut out. However, their aggressive approach, popularly termed as ‘Bazball’, could hold them in good stead.