Can India overcome the demons of the last tour of England ?

When was the last time Dhoni and Co won a test series outside India? Its hard to recall. What I can recall is India losing the test Series against England 4-0 and then thereafter suffered another shock in Australia where they again got whitewashed. three years hence, India is back in England for significantly long tour where they are going to play 5 test matches, 5 ODIs and a T20 match. The new looking Indian contingent has arrived in England and has already undergone a practice match and are scheduled to play another against a county side.

The reason why I used the term new looking is because of the number of players who appeared in the last tour as compared to this year. Let us compare. We had openers in the form of a reluctant Sehwag and confused Gambhir. Then we had the mighty batting line-up in the form of Dravid, tendulkar and Laxman. With DHoni joining in at no 7 and then the bowlers like Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, injured Zaheer Khan, and Sreesanth. This year we have a completely new look team in the form of Dhawan/Vijay/Gambhir as openers, Pujara at no 3, Kohli replaces Tendulkar at 4, Rahane, Rohit, Dhoni at no 5, 6 & 7 respectively. Jadeja & Ashwin are the two spinners picked for this tour. But what is surprising is 6 fast bowlers have also been picked. We have Bhuvaneshwar kumar, Ishant, Shami, Varun Aaron, Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey. Looks like the selectors have learnt from the mistake they had made last time in not picking up many fast bowlers for the tour.

Remember this is an extremely long tour and expect someone to get injured. So, the first thing that Team India needs to do is to develop fitness of these fast bowlers to last a test series of 5 test matches. The conditions in England are going to help the bowlers swing and seam the ball. The last time India went, they had lost their spearhead Zaheer Khan on the first day of the test when he had injured his calf muscle.

India should gain some confidence from the way Sri lanka has just performed in England. Both the test matches went till the last over and only one produced result which was in the favour of Sri Lanka. Not a very regular sight to see an Asian team beat England in their own den. Dravid`s men could do it in 2007 series.

India needs to spend a lot of time to get a feel of the conditions in England. Its not easy to just go to any different condition and start playing your natural form of cricket. Indian batsmen have to get acclimatized in the two practice games they have. I am personally looking forward to seeing Gautam Gambhir back in the side. Also, expectations are high from Pujara, Kohli and Rahane.

BCCI has just announced that Dravid will be mentoring the team on this tour. But it will still be a big test for Dhoni. Dhoni has not been that same captain that he has been in the limited format of the game. Same is not applicable to Cook because he has been terrible since Ashes Loss in every format of the game. DHoni will be tested when his troops fail to deliver. Interesting will be wether or not he will make changes upon seeing a player is not performing. If Sharma fails, will he look to replace him with Stuart Binny or not ? Will Dravid be able to enhance his Dhoni`s leadership skills or not ?

Finally, India has a big job to do. The young men need to prove themselves and bring back the glory that the team had lost the last time around.