Click it and Unblock the Notifications
1 Cheteshwar Pujara
Pujara had a lukewarm outing against Leicestershire in the warm-up match last week. But that belied the form he showed for Sussex in the English county cricket through April, that paved the way for his return to the India side after being left out for the home series against Sri Lanka. Pujara played 4 matches for Sussex and he made hundreds in all those matches — 201, 109, 203, 170.
India will require Pujara’s ability to concentrate and pile a big innings against England to emerge winners or even for a draw that can gift them a series win.
2 Rishabh Pant
Pant might be having some difficulties in white ball cricket at the moment. But in Test cricket he is going through a fine run as his last 4 innings against South Africa and Sri Lanka have produced 100, 96, 39 and 50. Pant has a reasonable record against England in England having scored 308 runs in 7 matches with a hundred at 23.69 and overall the left-hander has scored 578 runs against England from 11 Tests at 32.11 with 2 hundreds.
But beyond those numbers, Pant can produce some really match-turning innings as he did against Australia. Despite his recent white ball turmoils Pant brings that X-Factor to the calculations.
3 Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah has already bagged more than 300 wickets across all international formats and 123 of them have come in Test cricket in 29 matches. In England, Bumrah has a good record too taking 32 wickets from 7 Tests at a very good strike-rate of 53.3 and overall, the fast bowler has taken 36 wickets against England in 9 Tests.
Bumrah will be eager to replicate that success against England and his efforts will go a long way in determining India’s fortunes at Edgbaston.
4 Jonny Bairstow
For someone who has played 86 Test matches, Bairstow’s record is slightly middling — 5000 runs at 36.07 with 10 hundreds and 23 fifties. Against India, the Yorkshireman has fared rather moderately scoring 414 runs from 9 matches at 25.87 with a highest of 93. He has played a total of 17 Tests against India and made 803 runs at 27.68 with 93 as his highest. So, Bairstow has not made his presence felt big time against India.
But in the recent series against New Zealand, we saw a different Bairstow smoking 394 runs, second highest behind Root’s 396, and he made those runs from 328 balls. It meant that his strike-rate for the whole series remained a T20-esque 120.12 and two hundreds to boot with. So, India will be wary of this new Bairstow.
5 Joe Root
Root was at his solid best against New Zealand stroking 396 runs from 3 Tests at an average 99 that will remind of a certain Australian legend. He also went past 10000 Test runs in the series against New Zealand, second Englishman to achieve the feat after Alastair Cook. Root has played 14 Tests against India in England and made 1401 runs at 70.05 with 6 hundreds. Overall, Root has played in 24 Tests against India scoring 2353 runs at 60.33 with 8 centuries. They are formidable numbers.
India will be keen to stop this Yorkshire man and stepping away from captaincy seemed to have only liberated him as a batsman.
6 James Anderson
Last but not the least! The 39-year-old Lancashire man was in good touch against New Zealand recently taking 11 wickets from 2 Tests, going past 650 wickets mark in the series too, third bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne to do that. Anderson has taken 99 wickets from 21 Tests against India in England, 10 wickets from 2 Tests at Edgbaston. Overall, Anderson has taken 133 wickets in 34 Tests against India.
The advancing age has not dimmed Anderson’s abilities and if anything a properly maintained and rested 'Jimmy’ can be even more damaging to the opposition.
India will be eager to negate the Anderson threat and deny him early wickets. But that will be one part of the story as the pacer can operate in fine measure with both old and new ball. He is good at conventional and reverse swing, so it is a task easier said than done for India at Edgbaston.
