Navjot Singh Sidhu has advised the team to start preparing for the England tour.© AFP
The Indian cricket team, fresh from their historic Champions Trophy triumph, head into a break from international cricket. With the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) set to start in nine days time, the Rohit Sharma-led side will now be seen in action during the upcoming England tour, slated to get underway in June. However, former India batter Navjot Singh Sidhu has advised the team to start preparing for the tour as early as possible, pointing out Rohit and his men’s recent struggles in red-ball cricket. While speaking to Sports Tak, Sidhu shed light on the challenges awaiting India during the five-match Test series.
“The thing to be worried about is that the IPL is now coming up next. No one is ready to sit out the IPL. They will play the league and then all of a sudden comes the England tour. Conditions will shift from North Pole to South Pole. Completely different. Moreover, India’s last Test series in England had started on August 4. This time, it is ending on August 2. The matches are in June and July. There will be grass and moisture and the air will be so heavy that the ball will gain ample movement. And then it will move more off the seam,” said Sidhu.
India failed to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after a heavy loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in January earlier this year.
Sidhu warned that India need to find solid replacements for all-rounders and white-ball specialists Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel in the middle order.
“England are sitting ready at home in their conditions and they are like wounded tigers. They have been beaten and defeated. India’s biggest problem is that in the middle order there are no all-rounders the way you see in white ball cricket. Is there a Ravindra Jadeja, or Hardik Pandya or Axar Patel? There is only Jadeja among these three and even he will be limited there. Will he take 4-5 wickets in an innings there? No,” he added.
The cricketer-turned-commentator also pointed out that India would need to pick their bowlers without compromising on batting depth.
“For that you have to depend on someone like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, maybe Arshdeep Singh. You will have to bring a mystery spinner with all of them, that is England’s weakness. But India won’t expose Varun Chakravarthy. Or else they will play Kuldeep. So if these are your four bowlers, none of them bat. Then there is the problem of how to strengthen the batting order. These are the questions standing in front of India,” Sidhu pointed out.
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