The five-match Test series between India and England is on the heels of getting commenced in the City of Nawabs, Hyderabad on Thursday, January 25. A lot of stuff has happened in the build-up to the series opener with a player from both England and India squads withdrawing from the series (two matches in Virat Kohli's case), India announcing that KL Rahul will be playing just as a batter and England spinner Shoaib Bashir's visa getting delayed among other things. However, at 9:30 AM IST on Thursday, it will be cricket which will take precedence over anything.
England under their new aggressive approach of taking the game head on, are touring India for the first time and captain Ben Stokes admitted that it will be a long and tough assignment but they are excited. In the last one and a half years, England have made Test cricket exciting to watch and play but on Indian pitches against the quality of Indian spinners, it will not be easy but as Stokes mentioned, they are looking to take this opportunity head on.
While Indian skipper Rohit Sharma dismissed the approach 'Bazball' saying they'd like to focus more on themselves and not bother about how the visitors are going to play. However, the former England captain Michael Vaughan was of the view that the new approach of the Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum side is not easy to play against and the visitors could shock the Indian team in their own backyard in the first match itself.
"Really looking forward to the #INDvENG test series … India are clear favourites but I think England might give them a shock or 2 … It might be this week in Hyderabad … This New England approach isn’t easy to play against," Vaughan wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
England will be without Harry Brook, one of the pioneers of their Bazball era but that meant a comeback for Ben Foakes straight away into the line-up. India, on the other hand, like England too will be playing with three spinners.
