India batters inexperienced, but technically no sitting ducks

Hindustan Times

11-06-2025

I stumbled on the itinerary of the Indian team's 1952 tour to England.
It began in early May with two months of 'warm up' matches (tour games) before India played the first of their four Test matches in July. India played a total of 29 matches on that trip!
Those were obviously different times when national teams had a lot of free time, India even more, as it was an emerging Test nation.
Now India are like business tycoons with a packed itinerary and not a day to spare, and within these constraints Indian cricket does its best to give overseas Test cricket the due diligence it commands. To expect more commitment than this would be unreasonable, so now it's a week in advance at the most and a couple of 'friendly' matches before India play their first Test on a foreign tour.
Because Indian players go to England and Australia a lot now it's more a matter of getting reacquainted with conditions for players. With very few first-class games before the first Test, modern players make the mistakes they would have made in the warmup games in the actual Test match; it's learning in the job kind of situation.
In England, to put it simply, it's just two primary adjustments that players have to make.
Batters need to play close to the body and refrain from hitting through the line when not to the pitch of the ball, which means they have to do exactly the opposite of what they were doing for the last two months in IPL. And yes, leave deliveries outside off. Anyone who can't do these two things will have a miserable tour of England. There is no getting around this fact.
Remember Virat Kohli's success in 2018, it was only because of the number of balls he left outside off that he emerged as the highest scorer from both sides by far.
I saw KL Rahul practicing this a lot in the nets while facing Bumrah two days back. He was in a sense getting reacquainted. Karun Nair will have to focus on this the most, from the possible top five he has a tendency to play loose armed on the up, as a natural reaction to a good length ball.
India are fortunate to have Jaiswal, Rahul, Pant, Sudharsan, Jadeja and even Nitish Reddy who despite being modern day products of the T20 world can play close to the body and leave balls outside off.
This batting line-up may be inexperienced, but technically they aren't sitting ducks.
We think life for bowlers is easier when it comes to adjusting, all they have to do is keep pegging away outside off.
Sure, line is important but length is more so. Getting fuller into an area where a batter is forced to get onto the front foot and get tempted to drive or push is the length that will make you a star bowler in England.
Because of the flat nature and low bounce on our pitches Indian seamers tend to naturally bowl a bit shorter. In England though, this Indian length will make you an 'unlucky Ishant'.
Remember Ishant always beating the bat but never getting the edge? That was because of the length.
Prasidh especially would have to work on this as his natural length is much shorter. Interestingly again, this short length is what made him a runaway success in IPL.
As we can see T20 cricket and Test cricket are constantly working against each other when it comes to skill development, what's needed to excel in T20s will be the cause for your downfall in Tests. It's amazing that there are still a few players in the world who excel in both formats simultaneously, these are your modern greats!
England under Stokes is a different team.
Stokes as captain makes his team much harder to beat. His captaincy is all about getting under the skin of the opposition players, like designer clothes he has specially designed plans for every opposition player.
And when he spots a weakness in a batter, he does not subtly attack it but goes all guns blazing at it. Like when he wants to get a batter out who is weak on the short ball, he will have six fielders placed on the leg side. He won't bother with slips then because he has put all his eggs in one basket. I believe Stokes' captaincy is a major attraction of this series, he makes Test cricket more watchable only by his captaincy.
He may be a bit blindsided this time though as there are quite a few Indian players he won't have a read on.
England will still start as firm favourites, but India could be dangerous for they will be free spirited. Two senior batters woefully out of form and rock bottom on self-confidence won't be casting their dark shadows on the team anymore, and coach Gambhir especially may be relieved by this.