After nearly a month-long camp in Abu Dhabi as part of the preparation for the five-match Test series against India, the England cricket team arrived in Hyderabad on Sunday, January 21 ahead of the first Test. England led by Ben Stokes didn’t have an auspicious start in the new World Test Championship cycle with two wins and a draw in the Ashes series against Australia and were further pegged back by a 19-point loss due to slo over-rate. The India series will probably the toughest challenge for England’s ‘Bazball’ approach but one that they are looking forward as the coach Brendon McCullum mentioned.
England Cricket’s official social media handles shared the video of the team arriving in Hyderabad amid much fanfare with people on the streets gathering to get a glimpse of their favourite stars.
Watch the video here:
The five-match Test series begins at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal on January 25 with the caravan set to move to Vizag in the first week of February, followed by Rajkot in mid-February and then Ranchi in the final week before finishing in picturesque Dharamsala in the first week of March. The series will be the biggest challenge for England batters especially, with rank turners expected and how they quip themselves if a few wickets fall early.
Several former England cricketers have already written off Stokes and Co and have predicted a 5-0 result in India’s favour given that the visitors decided not to play a single practice game before the series. However, India will be wary of this dangerous English side and not be complacent as former skipper Nasser Hussain said, they won’t go down without packing punches and the hosts have to ensure that they evade them well.
England Test squad for India series: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Shoib Bashir, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes (wk), Dan Lawrence, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood