India’s quest for a first Test series win in England since 2008 got off to a low-key but perfect start in Canterbury yesterday.
While the IPL ramps up to a conclusion, several of those not involved in the playoffs are in England, playing for India A against England Lions. In the wake of the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, India are in a transitional state, their first-choice line-up less clear than it has been for some time. There are places to be won and lost, and also a sense of unease among India’s fans about what exactly a Test team without those two titans looks like. Given that, the relief in seeing a first-innings score of 557 against England’s supposed second string will be palpable.
There are personal narratives to be burnished as well. Chiefly, Karun Nair, who hasn’t played a Test in over eight years, and thought cricket had left him behind as he slid to the domestic fringes. A change of team and astonishing run of form has led to a Test recall. A double century for India A is another step along that path. For Sarfaraz Khan too there will be satisfaction in making 92, while also mingled with the disappointment of missing a hundred. His first-class record is up there with the very best in the game’s history, and he has started creditably in Tests at home. But so far he has been deemed not to have the game for overseas tours, left out of the XI in Australia and then dropped from the Test squad altogether. His score is a statement if not a milestone.
Amongst all this, however, it’s hard to work out exactly how much head coach Gautam Gambhir should read into the runs plundered by the middle order when it comes to selecting the XI for the first Test at Headingley, and not just because of the old cliche about not judging a pitch until both sides have batted on it. A look at the England Lions bowling attack shows two bowlers in Ajeet Singh Dale and Zaman Akhter who average 35 and 42 with the ball respectively, despite playing largely in Division Two of the County Championship, while the other two quicks, Josh Hull and Eddie Jack, are either side of their 20th birthdays with just 26 first-class appearances between them.
However, there is a sense in which this is a properly second-string England Test side, in that these four quicks are all among those who the England hierarchy view as being potential Test bowlers in the future. Dale and Akhter are two of the quicker bowlers on the circuit, and both have showed in parts why England rate them highly. Akhter, a SACA graduate, started the 2024 season with an eye-catching five-for against Yorkshire that included Joe Root and Harry Brook among its victims. Dale shone in his most recent County Championship fixture, taking nine wickets, including a first-innings seven-for, in a hard-fought victory over Kent.
Hull’s attributes are on show for all to see, delivering from a towering frame at a left-arm angle, and he has also been clocked at 89mph in The Hundred. That combination tempted England into giving him a Test debut against Sri Lanka last year, despite an eye-watering first-class bowling average, and while that didn’t go to plan as England slid to an ignominious defeat, Hull has become a more rounded bowler this season, averaging 24 with the ball for a Leicestershire side dominating Division Two. Jack, the youngest and least experienced of the quartet, is a strapping right-armer who averages 23 with the ball at this early stage of his career.
Rehan Ahmed, who bowled the most overs of England Lions’ attack in the first innings, is another bowler who is similarly tricky to pin down. He is averaging 23 with the ball alongside Hull at Leicestershire this season, but has also bowled fewer than nine overs a game, used almost exclusively to lop off the tail, which he has done to good effect. In five Tests so far, he has performed creditably, with a five-for on debut as England’s youngest Test cricketer showing his obvious potential.
It’s possible that a Lions side combining the top performers in the County Championship would have provided a sterner challenge to India A, but it would also have been a different challenge to the one they are set to face when the Test series starts. The Lions attack at least has the minerals of a Test line-up, if not yet the CV.
Watching the game, that much was clear to see. Nair displayed a wide array of strokes on both sides of the wicket off both front and back foot, but he also was rarely made to wait for a scoring opportunity. He was also dropped once, on 89, nicking to second slip where Emilio Gay dropped the chance. But still, 204 runs are 204 runs, and it’s much better to have made them than not. There is danger in failure. While Yashasvi Jaiswal is sure to start the series, India A captain Abhimanyu Easwaran missed a chance to press his case for a Test debut. He won’t get many more.
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