Joe Root will lead England in the five-match Test series against India. (Reuters Photo)
Expectations were modest around Harry Kane & Co. at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but a few good results changed prespectives. Something similar seems to be playing out in the lead-up to the Test series against India. Parallels
* Before the England football team left for Russia, decades of underachievement at major tournaments had prompted a feeling of resignation among fans and followers. Nothing much was expected of Gareth Southgate’s young team and reaching the quarterfinals was considered a realistically good target
* The gun tattoo on winger Raheem Sterling’s right calf got disproportionately large coverage
* There were question marks on almost every position – from custodian Jordan Pickford’s lack of experience, the untested defensive combination, the lack of creativity in midfield and Harry Kane bottling it on the big stage. With Panama and Tunisia in England’s group, the team was expected to get into the knockouts but anything beyond that was to be a bonus
* The only positive theme running through this narrative was that the manager and players seemed more down to earth than their predecessors, and the public could relate to them more
* However, it took just one win – which needed an injury-time winner from Kane against a limited Tunisian side – for the perception to be turned on its head. According to the English media, Southgate’s team was the most creative one in the tournament, and the opponents managed to stay in touch only through dark tactics, cynical fouling and incompetent refereeing
* A 6-1 rout of Panama, probably the weakest team in the tournament, prompted the dusting out of an old song ‘It’s coming home’, making it the unofficial theme of England’s campaign
* England lost three of their seven matches at the World Cup, prevailed once in a penalty shootout (that itself was the cause of continuous celebration). The only ‘proper’ win – apart from the two in their group – was against a workmanlike-Sweden in the quarterfinals
* But with England’s best result at a World Cup for 28 years — down to a plucky group of players, a sensible manager and the luck of the draw – the protagonists were hailed as heroes who had brought the feel-good factor back to English football
* Kane – with the help of three converted penalties and another goal which he hardly knew anything about – won the Golden Boot. The likes of John Stones, Harry Maguire and Kieran Trippier are now the symbols of a new England
Questions over captain Root’s ability to convert 50s into 100s, a poor away record and a recent draw at home. The World No.5 Test team is struggling to find the winning habit.
* Talk of pessimism over the Brexit scenario and the rising xenophobia in the country has ruled the airwaves.
* English cricket itself is not in rude health. With the home board focusing on the 50-over World Cup in less than a year’s time, the Test team has fallen to No. 5 in the rankings.
* The team is dire away from home. They have lost 17 and won four of their last 30 Tests on the road. But by recent evidence, they are not unbeatable at home either, with Pakistan sharing honours earlier in the summer.
* The ECB’s fixation with the apocalyptic concept of The Hundred, with its ever-changing rules and format, has also given plenty of ammunition to those predicting doom and gloom for Test cricket.
* Adil Rashid’s call-up, when he had excused himself from first-class cricket, on the basis of some handy spells in white-ball cricket, was described by former England skipper Michael Vaughan as “a stab in the back of county cricket.”
* An unusually hot summer has left the conditions so dry and abrasive as to, presumably, play into the hands of Virat Kohli and his men.
* England seem wrapped in doubt. Is Alastair Cook still the batsman he once was? Can Keaton Jennings become a reliable opening batsman? Can Joe Root convert his 50s into innings that decide Test matches? Are James Anderson and Stuart Broad as effective as they were four years ago? Is there a Test-quality spinner in the whole country?
* Kohli had a miserable series in 2014, with Anderson having his number. But former England captain Michael Atherton believes “Anderson is four years older. Kohli is four years wiser.”