The craze for cricket will once more be relieved when India will face England on the latters home in Tests. India is scheduled to play a total of five Test matches against England, starting from August 1.
With the victory of T-20 series on Indias side and ODI series being won by England, both the teams are at equal at present in their performance. The English side will be celebrating its 1000th Test at Edgbaston, and it will be up to world No.1 India to spoil the home party.
Still, India needs to prove itself in Tests series, as their record in the past has been dismal. In the last Test series between India and England on English soil in 2014, the former lost the series 3-1. This came after another miserable defeat of 4-0 in Tests for Indian squad back in 2011. India last won a Test series in England in 2007 under Rahul Dravid, and it will be no easy task ahead of the Virat Kohli-led side to duplicate that feat. In fact, India have only won six out of the 57 matches on English soil.
So taking in consideration the Test match performances of Indian batsmen on English soil, they have to prove a lot regarding their credibility of batting. Here we present some of the interesting facts that one should gaze upon before the start of the nail-biting Test matches between both the nations.
Amit Mishra, who is no more a part of Indian national squad at present, has better batting average than Indian skipper and star batsman Virat Kohli on English soil. Although Virat Kohli is a prominent batsman for Indian team at present, he has to achieve a lot more on English soil. Virat Kohli has miserable batting stats at English soil with an average of 13.40 with 134 runs in 5 matches. Amit Mishra on the other hand, has played only 2 matches on English soil and scored 153 runs with an average of 38.25. Moreover, Mishra’s highest score is 84 while Kolhi’s highest score in just 39.
Indian masterpiece Sachin Tendulkar, who hit 100 centuries during his international career, never hit a century at Lord’s, which is referred as the ‘Home of Cricket’. Tendulkar scored 51 test centuries during his career but was never able to hit one at Lord’s.
Since his debut in 1989, Sachin played at Lord’s ground 9 times during his Test career but could not reach the three-figure mark. Tendulkar’s scores at Lord’s read – 10, 27, 31, 16, 12, 37, 16, 34, 12 – a total of 195 runs at an average of 21.67.
Indian former fast bowler Ajit Agarkar, who also showed heroics with his bat on several occasions, is one of the Indian batsmen to hit a century at Lord’s. Agarkar amazed everyone with his knock of 109 off 190 balls at Lord’s, during a Test match against England in 2002. In the second innings of the match, India was chasing 568 with two days remaining. India were at a tough situation after losing six wickets on the fourth day with Agarkar on crease at the end. On the final day, when Agarkar came to bat while being on 28, he smashed a century to end his innings at 109 runs with 16 fours. Unfortunately, India lost the match by by 170 runs. In all, there are nine Indian batsmen who have scored a century at Lord’s – Vinoo Mankad, Dilip Vengsarkar, Gundappa Viswanath, Ravi Shastri, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane and Ajit Agarkar.
While at present there are many Indian players who have double centuries to their name in Tests, there are only two of them who have smashed it on English soil. Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid are the only two Indian players who have scored double century in England. Sunil Gavaskar scored 221 against England at The Oval in 1979 and Rahul Dravid scored 217 against England at the same venue in 2002. Sachin Tendulkar narrowly missed to achieve this feat in 2002, when he scored 193 against England at Headingley, Leeds but became short of just 7 runs to reach double century.
Interestingly, Dinesh Karthik is the only player in the current squad who played against England during the 2007 tour. All the other players who played against England in 2007 series have retired.