5 Indians who flourished in England
England is one of the countries where once things start going down as a cricketer and as a team, it’s difficult to come back on that particular tour, especially in Test cricket. India found that in 2011 and 2014 and Virat Kohli, in particular, fell prey to it in 2014.
England has always been known as the place where the ball moves around and it is a challenge for batsmen not only in Test cricket but to some extent even in ODI cricket. But in recent years, the pitches, in general, all around the world for limited-overs cricket have become quite flat.
But the challenge still remains in Test cricket where the ball moves around under overcast conditions and it’s a test for every batsman. Not only batsmen, even bowlers need to adjust accordingly. England use the Dukes ball whose seam is a bit more pronounced than the Kookaburra one. The bowlers also need to get used the conditions and adapt to it.
Despite the challenging conditions, there have quite a few players who’ve gone to England and have come out with flying colours. Thus, here we look at 5 Indian players who flourished, thrived and came to the fore in England.
Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid was the rock of India’s batting line-up in the late 1990s and throughout the first decade of 2000. And England will always be a special place for Dravid. He always performed really well when he travelled to the UK and his numbers batting in England are superb.
It was only at Lord’s in 1996 that India found a batting hero in Rahul Dravid. Batting at No. 7 on debut, the Karnataka lad went out and scored a fine 95. He did miss out on that hundred and the name on the honours board but he showed the world what he is capable of.
He once again missed out on a ton in his second game as he made 84 at Trent Bridge. He showed wonderful resilience and character during his debut series.
Six years later, he went back to England and scored 602 runs (which included three hundreds and one fifty) at a staggering average of 100.33. The 2007 tour wasn’t a great one for him but in 2011 he was back churning out runs in tough conditions. In an absolute disastrous series for India (where they lost the Test series 0-4), Rahul Dravid was the sole batsman who coped with the difficult conditions and consistently scored runs.
He scored 461 runs at an average of 76.83 in that series and also, he got the coveted hundred at Lord’s something which he had missed by a whisker on debut.
Overall, Rahul Dravid has scored 1376 runs at an average of 68.80 in England in Test cricket. He has the best average for Indian batsmen in England in Test cricket. Even in ODIs, Dravid has good numbers in England. He’s scored 1169 runs at an average of almost 45 in ODIs in England.
Dravid might have scored tons of runs in international cricket, but that debut series in England in 1996 was the breakout one for him.