5 reasons why India could win the Test series against England
The sun is out in the hottest month of the year, as it shines on the lush green grass, giving it a beautiful shade of yellow. It is difficult to differentiate between the pitch and the grassy infield. A tall fast bowler stands on top of his mark, licking his lips, as he prepares to hurl the ball at the batsman.
The spectators have settled in with their beers in hand, hoping for an eventful day of test cricket. This is probably what a typical test match day in the English summer looks like. As the India-England Test series nears, a lot of speculations are being made on as to who will turn out to be the better of the two sides.
India's record in England hasn't been the best in recent years. They lost the series both in 2011 as well as 2014. Though 2014 wasn't as humiliating as the 2011 whitewash, a defeat is a defeat. But India had their sets of takeaways from 2014.
This series promises to be a lot more competitive than the past two series. With both teams having their sets of pluses and minuses, it is bound to be a very interesting series.
But here are 5 reasons why I think Kohli and co. have the upper edge this time around.
Change in dynamics
There has been a paradigm shift in the way things work in the team after the transfer of power from Dhoni to Kohli. There is a vast difference in the captaincy method of the two, the latter, being much more aggressive with attacking fields settings and voracious use of aggressive fast bowling, while Dhoni's art lies in foxing the batsman to give his wicket away.
Another salient feature of Kohli's reign has been the heavy influence of wrist spinners. All this has contributed to the team's recent successes in Test matches. Also, the introduction of the yo-yo test has helped Kohli and Co. raise the bar considerably as far as fitness is concerned. These things, small as they might seem, could have a huge role to play and might just change India's fortunes in England.