England Cricket Board named a 16-member squad for the 5-match Test series to be played on Indian soil starting in January 2024 and going on till March. It will be a part of the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle.
Despite drawing the Ashes series 2-2, England’s points got deducted due to a slow over-rate. They will be looking to prove their worth in tough spin conditions on Indian soil. Ben Stokes would lead the side after having a knee injury.
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, and Jonny Bairstow comprise batters who would be looking to play attacking cricket. England named James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, and Mark Wood as pace bowling options. Gus Atkinson has been in the squad with good performances in the County Championship.
Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow will be the wicketkeeping options in the series. Uncapped players including Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley would be spinning bowling options along with Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed.
It promises to be an exciting series between two top-quality teams in the world. England registered a whitewash on Pakistan soil 3-0. The last time England visited for 5 5-match Test series on Indian soil was in 2016 when the Indian team registered a 4-0 series victory with 1 match at Rajkot ending in a draw.
The first Test match would be played from 25th January till 29th January at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, followed by the second one at Vizag from 2nd February. England will then move to Rajkot for the third match of the series to be played at Rajkot from 15th February.
The fourth fixture of this series will be played at Ranchi on 23rd February and goes on till 27th February. After this match, the series would end at Dharmshala on 7th March. Under the captaincy of Alistair Cook, the England team registered their first-ever Test series victory on Indian soil in 2012. Ben Stokes and Co would be looking to replicate this feat with an attacking style of cricket.
England Test squad to face India:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Jonny Bairstow, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood.
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