India’s chance at glory in UK

After 6 months of limited overs extravaganza from South Africa to IPL to England, we are back to what the purists will term as “real cricket”. On the 1st of August, India will face England in a grueling 5 test match series. All the media houses and experts from both the cricket crazy countries are out with their swords ready to dissect every move and strategy both on and off the field.

India’s tremendous rise under MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly has ensured that any series between these two countries is a big-ticket tournament and a cash cow for all the concerned stakeholders, thus leading to its journey from a 3-test series back early in 2000s to a 5-test series in 2018.

In fact, other than Ashes, this is the only series which has this many number of matches. The popularity of this battle has been so huge that both the respective cricket boards have had the foresight to reduce the limited overs matches to 3 and increase the longer format to 5, which is supposedly not the broadcaster’s favorite format.

HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD SO FAR

A look at the last 25 years head-to-head record suggests that there is not much that differentiates between the two sides. Both have won an equal number of series with England having won just 1 match more compared to the Indians. Even their away record is pretty similar with both having equal number of wins (series and matches). Away wins for India have been extremely rare in England, and history suggests that the English will have an upper hand in the beginning of the series.

However, a lot has changed for both the sides over last few years and this is considered to be one of the most open series in decades.