India vs England: The magic of Test cricket in a long series, after a long time

India-England five-Test series 2024: India has played only four five-Test series in the last 20 years, all of them against England. (Photo via X/Rohit Sharma)

There is a video of the Indian team doing a lap of honour after winning the Brisbane Test, three years ago on 19 January 2021, beating Australia. That three-wicket win gave India the four-Test series 2-1, a remarkable achievement after India had lost the first Test in Adelaide, having been bowled out for their lowest Test score ever of 36 in the second innings.

In that video from Adelaide, the lap of honour is led by Rishabh Pant, whose unbeaten 89 took India past the 328 needed to win. Walking shyly on the side, behind the main huddle, is captain Ajinkya Rahane, who had taken over the leadership role after the first Test when captain Virat Kohli became unavailable for the series. Rahane’s century in the second Test allowed India to level the series 1-1 before drawing the third and heading into the decider.

During the prize distribution, Rahane, looking awkward and embarrassed, holds aloft the Border-Gavaskar trophy before quickly summoning his teammates to him. He hands over the trophy to the first teammate who reaches him, and quickly slinks away into the background.

This article is not a tribute to Rahane, though he has had several, richly deserved ones since that series, including a documentary Down Underdogs. It’s on Test cricket, that original format of cricket, over-shadowed a bit by shorter formats but one that truly brings out the essence of the sport. That series in Australia, one of the most captivating, also came in the aftermath of a pandemic, when a heroic victory was just the tonic Indian cricket fans needed.

India will now host England for a five-match Test series beginning 25 January in Hyderabad, part of the ICC World Test Championships. It’s not often that bilateral series extend to five Tests these days, which makes this series already intriguing. India has played only four five-Test series in the last 20 years, all of them against England. The rest of the matches will be held not in metros, but in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamsala, marking another oddity to the series.

But capping the novelty is England’s decision to travel with their own chef, Omar Meziane, who went to Pakistan with the team in 2022, according to a report in The Telegraph. Considering the length of the series, the step is to avoid having players falling sick in India, which has happened in the past. Graham Gooch, England’s captain on the 1993 tour, fell ill in Chennai on the eve of the second Test, having consumed some dodgy prawns. He had to hand over captaincy to Alec Stewart for the Test, which England lost, prompting the Wisden Almanack to joke that England “were beaten by 11 men and a plate of prawns”.

But off field eccentricities aside, curiosity about the series also stems from whether England will adapt to India’s dusty tracks, it’s partisan crowds and stick to its ‘Bazball’ strategy of scoring quickly. England last won a series here in 2012, losing the subsequent 16, though the visitors have not lost a Test series since coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes came together.

India is also not as mysterious now as it used to be in the 1990s when the Gooch incident happened. Many English players, including Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, have the experience of playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), under far-more oppressive conditions (weather-wise) of April-May, though Visakhapatnam is unlikely to have cool weather even in January.

England will arrive with four spinners, the more experienced Jack Leach (124 wickets in 35 Tests) accompanied by newcomer, 19-year-old all-rounder Rehan Ahmed (seven wickets from one Test). Twenty-year-old Shoaib Bashir has barely played six first class matches (10 wickets) since debuting in June last year while 24-year-old Tom Hartley has 40 wickets from 20 first-class matches (and no wickets from two one-day internationals). These four spinners have managed 55 County Championship wickets between them this season, at a combined average of 47, according to a report in ESPN Cricinfo.

“We have been trying to earmark the spinners we think will be most useful in India… you almost have to disregard what’s happened in county cricket, because it’s a very different style of bowling, and try to work out who will be the best players for what we will come up against,” the report quoted Rob Key, England’s managing director, as saying.

The teenage Rehan Ahmed’s teammate on this tour will be 41-year-old James Anderson whose 690 wickets from 183 matches make him the third most successful Test bowler and a role model for longevity in the weary world of fast bowling. While Anderson would be hunting for his 700th Test wicket—and possibly overtake Shane Warne’s 708 mark—during the course of this series, it could also be the fast bowler’s last series in India. Anderson has 34 wickets from 13 matches he has played on five tours to India, which does not make it his happiest hunting ground.

“Jimmy is superhuman,” his teammate from the 2012 tour, Steven Finn, told Cricinfo. “People have been anticipating he will retire for about seven years now and he keeps surprising people and performing. He didn’t have a fantastic summer last year, but I know from knowing him as a character that he wouldn’t be doing this unless he felt he could make a difference.”

England have won three matches, lost eight, in India since 2012, with their last series in 2021. If they can reverse that trend, with “Bazball”, three rookie spinners and a veteran fast bowler, that in itself would be the magic of Test cricket.