FANTASY
Follow UsThe achievements of Indian Hockey Teams (both Men and Women) following PV Sindhu’s achievements on Saturday has taken Indian attention to Tokyo completely, with all the conversation centring around it. It is a welcome change in a country that doesn’t look beyond Cricket but that also means the Pataudi Trophy between India and England has a rather mute build-up.
GROUND DETAILS AND TEAM COMBINATION
Test Cricket returns to Trent Bridge after a gap of three years and the last team to have played a match here is again, India, who secured a massive 203-run win thanks to some glorious effort from Hardik Pandya. Since 2010, the venue has hosted 8 Tests and batters have scored at an average of 30.1. In the aforementioned time period, pacers have accounted for 86% of wickets at an average of 25.9 while the spinners have averaged 49.5 with a very uninspiring strike rate of 82.3%.
Earlier today, the wicket bore a tinge of green and knowing Trent Bridge behaviour, it might bounce a bit more than usual English venues. While that will tempt the team management to pick both Ashwin and Jadeja, but the lack of zing of spinners overall may force them to do otherwise.
SUGGESTED TEAMS
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. You can use this tool to build your team with the help of algorithms. Based on your preferences, the platform will guide you to create the ideal fantasy XI.
CAPTAIN
Virat Kohli might not have had a spectacular performance in the last two years but you can never ignore him. Especially when batters across both sides have failed to dominate the circuit to inspire any confidence. Further, the way the Indian skipper, who was the highest run-scorer in the 2018 series, managed to put away bad balls and stick around in the World Test Championship final, one can be confident of him scoring a lot of tough runs.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Virat Kohli to score 8-13 runs
X-FACTORS
Stuart Broad has been absolutely terrific in English conditions. The last time Broad averaged anything above 30 was in 2017 and since then he has maintained his sub-30 average. He has a career average of 25.6 in English conditions which will keep her in good stead for the India series.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Stuart Broad to pick 4-6 wickets
Rishabh Pant has owned 2021 with some sublime performances. In 7 matches against England, the left-handed batsman has scored 432 runs at an average of 39.27. Apart from that, Pant is the fourth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket in 2021 with 560 runs at an average of 56.00. Pant is one of the players India will be banking heavily.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Rishabh Pant to score 37-56 runs
MATCH-UPS
Ajinkya Rahane might have been hailed as India’s overseas specialist but his returns against James Anderson have been anything but great. In the last five years, the Indian vice-captain has been dismissed five times for a mere 49 runs to his name against the English pacer, something Joe Root will be really excited about ahead of the five-match series, starting on August 4.
Probable XIs:
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma
England: Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root (c), Ollie Pope/Daniel Lawrence, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson