England vs India 2018: 5 Indian players you might not know have scored Test 50s in England
Scoring a Test half-century in England is always a difficult task for any visiting batsman as they need to cope with the difficult swing bowling conditions on offer. Despite having some of the best batsmen in the world, the Indians have always found it difficult to pile up the runs on the green and grassy English pitches.
The failure of their batsmen to tackle swinging conditions has meant that the Indian team has won just 3 Tests out of the last 16 that they have played in England. With an aim of winning its first test series on British soil since 2007, the Indian selectors have announced a strong 18-man squad, with a big hope that their batsmen will finally come good in English conditions.
There are several Indian batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, who liked batting on English soil and therefore have excellent test batting averages in England. But, among the current crop, barring Murali Vijay, most batsmen do not have any notable innings, with current skipper Virat Kohli yet to register a test fifty in England.
Virat Kohli, who is currently one of the best batsmen in all three formats, has struggled a lot against the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, yet there are a few Indian players who have surprised most with their batting skills in such conditions.
Hence, in this article we look at five such Indians who have registered a Test 50 in England:
#5 Sanjay Bangar
Of all the players on this list, current Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar cannot be considered as a batsman with limited batting skills, because during his playing days Bangar consistently piled up the runs in the domestic circuit for Railways while opening the innings.
Sanjay Bangar had a short International career with the Indian team and was picked mostly as a seam-bowling all-rounder in both the ODIs and tests between 2001 and 2004. Despite scoring heavily in the domestic circuit, Bangar failed to create much of an impact in the International arena, with his test batting average being a modest 29.37 which included three fifties and a hundred.
Of the three half-centuries Sanjay Bangar scored in the test format, one of them came at Headingley during India's 2002 tour. In that particular match, Bangar was promoted to open the innings after some poor performances by fellow opener Wasim Jaffer.
Bangar justified his promotion by scoring a patient 68 off 236 balls on the first day, thereby sharing an invaluable partnership of 170 runs with Rahul Dravid for the 2nd wicket on a difficult wicket. Later on, in the same match, Bangar also chipped in with two important wickets to set up a rare victory on English soil.