Former England spinner Monty Panesar has shared his views on the upcoming India-England series starting from February 05. England will tour India between February 5 to March 28 for four Tests, five T20Is and three ODIs. Chennai will host the first two Tests. The final two Tests will be played at the newly built stadium in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad will host the T20I series followed by Pune for the ODI series. 

Meanwhile, Monty Panesar has predicted that Ravichandran Ashwin will be a threat for the England batters in the series. Ashwin is 23 wickets short of 400 Test wickets heading into the series. 

How England Play R Ashwin WIll Decide The Series: Monty Panesar

“Ashwin had a great tour of Australia and will come into the series with tons of confidence. How England play Ashwin will decide the outcome of the series. Ashwin has become smarter with the way he has bowled in recent times and is in prime form,” Panesar told TOI.

The former England spinner further predicted that Ravindra Jadeja will be a big absence for India in the series. The Indian all-rounder is under rehabilitation at The NCA and will not be fit when the series starts, which is why he has been ruled out of the series. 

“Jadeja will be missed. The second spinner will be crucial for India as Ashwin will need support from the other end to put England under pressure. They have named Axar Patel in the squad but I do believe that Jadeja adds a different dimension to the Indian team,” added Panesar.

England are heading into the series after clean sweeping Sri Lanka in the two-Test match series at Galle. They are fourth on the World Test Championship points table. In their last tour to India in 2016-17, they lost the Test series 4-0 to Virat Kohli’s men. 

England squad for first two Tests vs India

Joe Root (captain), Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes