The captain of England’s Test team Joe Root has indicated England will go with their best team against India. Root also hinted that they will put to rest England’s hot top of discussion ” Rotation Policy “. So England is expected to come against India with full force in five-match Test series.
England was not picking their best players in playing XI throughout the winter during the series against India and Sri Lanka. This was to manage the workload of players due to upcoming marquee events like T20 World Cup and Ashes.
Explosive batsman Jonny Bairstow was benched for the first two Tests against India. Meanwhile, Wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler played two Tests in Sri Lanka and only a single one in India. However, he returned very soon to the white ball cricket matches.
Because of England and Wales Cricket Board’s rotation policy,many players were rested in series against New Zealand. England didn’t field their first-choice players in that match.
England lost that series against the World Champions Blackcaps and was criticized a lot by experts. The defeat against the Kiwis was the first home series defeat in 7 years for England. Meanwhile, England has lost four of their last five Tests.
The next five Test matches we’ll be trying to play our strongest side : Joe Root
Skipper Joe Root agreed that team has made many compromises in selecting playing XI in the last 10-12 months. However with the ten Hard Tests approaching they are planning to field their best possible playing XI. The upcoming series against India and Australia will be part of the World Test Championship cycle.
‘’We are coming into a period of time now where rest and rotation is put behind us. With Covid, and the amount of cricket that we’ve had, there’s been compromises made over different formats and different teams. We now have 10 very hard Test matches against two brilliant opposition coming up but it is a great opportunity for us to play some strong cricket and, if everyone is fit and available, we will have a good team ourselves. I’d like to think that over the next five Test matches we’ll be trying to play our strongest side, or have our strongest squad available for those games.” Root said as quoted by The Independent.
England will face off against India at home from 4 August . After finishing the series against India,they will start preparing for the upcoming Ashes series,for which they have to travel to Australia.
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