Runs, runs, runs and sweep, sweep, sweep... How England can win in India

NICK FRIEND: First innings scores, capitalising on Ravindra Jadeja's absence and adept use of the seam attack will be key to Joe Root leading the tourists to a series win

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Runs on the board: Back the plan

"It’s not rocket science." They were the words of Chris Silverwood between Test wins in Galle: England had just made their sixth first innings score in excess of 400 in 12 efforts. A week later, they had secured a second consecutive series clean sweep in Sri Lanka and, for the first time since 1913, Joe Root’s side had recorded five away Test wins in a row.

On the face of it, it might seem unrealistic to demand that the captain continues to churn out efforts like those he produced against the left-arm spin of Lasith Embuldeniya and the off-breaks of Dilruwan Perera. But even if it is not him in India, he has produced a blueprint for his charges to follow: occupy the crease, tough it out, put a competitive total on the board.

"Just get big first-innings runs to put the opposition under pressure and then skilful bowling," Silverwood described. It hardly sounds like the most complex of strategies, but sometimes simplicity is king. And as far as game plans go, it is fairly flawless in its conception. For an England team at times confused in its red-ball methods under the previous incumbent Trevor Bayliss, the basics set out by his successor have worked wonders for his batsmen.

In Silverwood’s short tenure, which began in New Zealand during the winter of 2019, there have been 11 centuries, with seven players averaging upwards of 35 – a marked improvement on the previous 12 Tests when only Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes averaged higher than 32.77. Likewise, only five players faced more than 1,000 deliveries in the final 12 months of Trevor Bayliss’ tenure – three down on this current period.

There are caveats, of course – notably that Bayliss’ last hurrah included five Tests against a mighty Australian attack and that his four-year plan centred on white-ball success.

But those notwithstanding, Silverwood’s clarity has got England playing. Root, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence, Ben Stokes, Rory Burns, Chris Woakes, Joe Denly, Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler have all passed fifty in that time.

And having put the wheels in motion, they can ill-afford to stop now.

^{Jofra Archer returns to bolster the seam attack}

Don’t discount the seamers…

If detractors still exist for James Anderson – duped by their own foolishness into believing that 606 Test wickets have only the English clouds to thank – then his Sri Lanka success ought to have brought a close to one of the game’s more outrageous conspiracy theories.

Because with little in his favour on an initially lifeless surface, he offered up an exhibition of masterful skill and control.

Rarely can the advancing years of an elite athlete have been so irrelevant: Anderson’s record since turning 30 is astonishing, and his six-wicket haul in the second Test in Galle were his best figures in Asia.

It brought back memories of England’s win in India in 2012 when MS Dhoni placed Anderson – a right-arm seamer on sharply spinning pitches – as the major difference between the teams.

In the case of Stuart Broad, those who have written him off in the past have been bitten hard for their distrust in an all-time great – this last year, more than most, has reinforced his powers of longevity.

It feels as though minds have previously been made up about the management of the pair through the latter stages of their careers – certainly on the road in less helpful conditions. But, if nothing else, their efforts in Sri Lanka must have spoken to the lingering temptation of throwing them in together.

V Ramesh Kumar, the curator in Chennai, where the first two Tests will take place, has already hinted that there will be some assistance for the seam bowlers on either side.

"It will be a typical Chepauk pitch with English look," he said, according to ESPNcricinfo. "It will work for all three departments. It will be a keen contest between bat and ball. First day, there will be something for the fast bowlers. Second and third days will favour batsmen. Fourth day onwards there will be wear and tear and support the spinners.”

Of course, neither Anderson nor Broad can play all four games – indeed, the same will be true of Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and Olly Stone.

But perhaps, just once in the series, it might just be worth putting the band back together.

Ravindra Jadeja is some cricketer, so jump all over his absence

Although India ended their triumphant trip to Australia walking wounded, several of those who missed the final Test in Brisbane have recovered. Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and KL Rahul are all set to be involved, while Virat Kohli returns from paternity leave to regain the reins from Ajinkya Rahane.

Hanuma Vihari, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma are all missing, but it is the absence of Ravindra Jadeja that might boost England’s hopes of winning in India for a second time in the last 10 years. The home side’s record ever since Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar spun the tourists to victory in 2012 is astounding: across nine years, they have won 28 out of 35 Tests, losing just a single game and winning all 12 series.

It is no exaggeration to suggest, especially on home soil, that Jadeja provides a vital balance. He sits 46 Test runs short of 2,000 at an average above 36; with the ball his 220 wickets have come at less than 25 apiece. In India, they are cheaper still: 157 at 21.06.

And in his most recent appearance against England in his own conditions, he took 10 wickets in Chennai, recording his career-best figures in an innings (7 for 48) and a match (10 for 154). Needless to say, Root’s men will enjoy the void left by his fractured thumb. Their job, therefore, is to prevent Axar Patel – Jadeja’s probable replacement and a similar cricketer – from dominating.

^{Ravindra Jadeja is expected to miss all four Tests}

Joe Root: King of the sweep

According to CricViz, the England captain’s average when batting against spin is the fourth-highest of any active Test cricketer – a record that includes 16 Tests in Asia and 32 innings, with nine half-centuries and four hundreds. Of the five continents on which he has batted, he faces more balls per innings in Asia (89.4) than any other.

In Sri Lanka, he looked to be playing an entirely different game to his teammates and opposition. Indeed, it was a nod to his absolute superiority that Angelo Mathews, a fine batsman in his own right, pointed to Root as a precedent worth emulating for his own charges, whose careers have been moulded on turning tracks like those in Galle rather than on Yorkshire’s greener surfaces.

"He played a magnificent innings, we can learn a lot from the way he batted,” said Mathews after the first Test.

"Some of the shots Root played, we can’t play. We need to be able to understand what we can and what we can’t do on these wickets against their bowlers. It’s not about being conservative – you always have to look to score runs – but you need to understand how you can score runs off these bowlers and in these conditions.”

It is not exaggerating the point to suggest that England could not have won without Root: not only his runs and the manner in which they came, but the time the hosts were forced to spend in the field as a result.

His exemplary use of the sweep made him an incessant nuisance: when the field was set straighter, he swept squarer; when the fielders have shifted accordingly, he paddled finer; when the whole legside was covered in boundary-riders, he unfurled his reverse-sweep, picking his spot on the broad expanses of the off-side.

Dom Sibley spoke at the end of the series how it was hard, in the face of Root’s apparent nonchalance, not to build up an inferiority complex of sorts.

But crucially, his approach appears to be rubbing off on his teammates. Sibley, for one, struggled horribly through his first three innings in Galle, before emerging more proactive and technically organised to compose a match-clinching half-century, albeit not without some fortune.

Of course, not everyone has the ability to defeat the spin conundrum as Root can, but he has at least provided an example of what is possible.

^{The onus will be on Jack Leach to inspire with the ball}

What a time to be a spinner…

Speaking of spin, what a time to be an England spinner. Before this winter, Dom Bess and Jack Leach had only played three Tests between them on the subcontinent – those appearances all belonged to Leach when England whitewashed Sri Lanka in 2018.

Both arrive in India with more experience under their belts, however, on the back of a month in Sri Lanka. Neither need telling that they can bowl better, nor do they require reminding that the challenges facing them in Chennai and Ahmedabad will outweigh anything they’ve come up against before in their short international careers.

Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and co. will present a stellar test of their credentials. But Bess spoke ahead of the series in Galle about the notion of opportunity. And what comes next is no different.

Bess played his first 10 Tests in London, Leeds, Manchester, Southampton, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth – hardly the spitting bunsens that a youngster making his way might have wished for.

Twelve wickets in two Tests against Sri Lanka, then, were deserved reward for plenty of toil on less encouraging surfaces, even if he was hardly at his most consistent.

“I genuinely can’t wait,” he said at the beginning of January. “It’s a great opportunity.” None of that will have changed in his mind. He and Leach, both great mates, are faced now with the challenge of their cricketing lives. But if not this, then what is Test cricket for?

Images courtesy of BCCI