Test Cricket returns to India, as two World Test Championship final hopefuls face-off in Chennai

While the country is yet to recover from the Gabba hangover, there comes yet another main course as Team India prepares to host a team for the first time on its shore since November 2019. While New Zealand have already booked their ticket to Lord’s in June, the Test series presents India and England the opportunity to clinch the remaining spot in the ICC World Test Championship final.

All eyes will be on the returning Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Team India may have managed to pull off one miracle after another Down under, but the presence of Virat Kohli at number 4 lends the middle order a robust look. Brimming with fresh heroes, there will not be a shortage of batting talent to fill up the top 6. 

To say Team India’s bowling bench strength was stretched to its extremities would be an understatement. Now with the return of three of its senior bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin who missed the final Test, and Ishant Sharma who failed to make the flight to Australia with fitness issues, the management will be spoilt for choices. Considering the aforementioned three seniors make it into the playing eleven on the 5th, that leaves only 2 spots to be filled among Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Hardik Pandya.

Weirdly for a Test series at home, India appear to be the lesser prepared for the conditions between the two teams. The euphoria of a Test series win for the ages in Australia might still be fresh in their minds, but England have had a bit of sub-continental tryst in the lead-up to the Test series. While Team India almost certainly will pose a bigger and a sterner test, Sri Lanka would have thawed the English bodies to the harshness and humidity akin to Chennai.

While England skipper Joe Root will yet again be their batting lynchpin, their talisman in Ben Stokes has arrived directly in India. An inexperienced batting unit’s worries will further be accentuated by the loss of their opener from the Sri Lanka series, Zak Crawley who has been ruled out of the first two Test matches in Chennai. England’s rotation policy among their bowlers would have afforded the aging bodies of James Anderson and Stuart Broad sufficient rest to tackle the Indian challenge with freshness. Add to that the dangerous Jofra Archer and England have no shortage of fire in the pace department. Jack Leech’s inexperience may be a cause for concern, but Moeen Ali’s likely inclusion for the first Test gives the spin department a facelift.

The previous time England had a crack at India away from the familiar, cold, overcast skies back home, Team India rolled them over 4-0. While England may have been encouraged by a high-scoring draw in the first Test, India grew more and more dominant with each passing Test match, the last two Tests ending in the visitors being condemned to defeats by an innings. 

Chennai has traditionally thrown up turning tracks, and with a long and arduous 5 weeks of Test cricket in the humid heat of the city, and the dry heat of Ahmedabad posing diverse challenges, a slow burn of a Test series awaits between two of the top three likely contenders for the ICC World Test Championship.