Why conquering the Kingdom of Kohli is a mammoth task… India have lost just one series on home soil since 2004 but if England are going to become the best they have to BEAT the best

For England’s golden generation it represented the final frontier, the culmination of a brutal and brutal journey that had achieved top-class Test status.

To be the best, they say, you have to beat the best, and on their own turf, that’s what India is.

Of all the challenges that modern Test cricket presents, none compares to the magnitude of winning a series on the subcontinent. India’s home record over the last two decades is simply outstanding.

Not just in the terms of cricket, but applied to any sport, and it therefore places the achievement of an England side under the young captaincy of Alastair Cook and the sadness of South Africa, who lost their official number one title the previous summer had taken away, in context. Among touring teams, they are the only winners since Australia at the end of 2004.

It is also worth highlighting that after the winter of 2012-13, when Cook’s men came from behind with back-to-back wins in Mumbai and Calcutta, things have become even tougher for visitors to Kohli’s kingdom.

India’s record on home soil over the past 29 bilateral Test series is W 24 D 4 L 1, and they have also won one-off matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan during that period.

Where India previously outlasted opponents struggling to adapt to alien conditions, they are now being bulldozed. Their numbers are phenomenal. It’s 14 series wins in a row and counting. In the last 120 months, India has not played three home matches without a win.

So what does the Indian team that starts in Hyderabad on Thursday against Ben Stokes’ Bazballers over five matches possess that its predecessor led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not? The answer is ambition.

In the successive captaincies of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, India, like Stokes’ England, was willing to gamble; risk losing in the pursuit of victory. Such positivity suited their staff well.

Under Dhoni, India’s policy had been to stay in the matches and strike late when the opportunity presented itself.

Under Kohli, they took charge themselves, dictating their own terms and forcing opponents to retreat.

Kohli made 68 appearances in charge and won 40 matches – making him India’s most successful Test captain – but resigned from the role two years ago this month, on the eve of his 100th cap, because of his desire to boost the team’s productivity had undoubtedly taken its toll. only.

India won 26 and lost just two of 32 home Tests during his tenure, but one of the game’s most prolific centurions also sacrificed some of his individual play, going 27 innings without a hundred, to change the dressing room mentality change. Rohit is cut from the same rock.

One story doing the rounds in Indian cricket, to highlight the difference in prospects between the old and new regimes, focuses on the 2014 Trent Bridge Test. India were 250 ahead with 55 overs of the match allotment remaining . England struggled for form and were under pressure.

Dhoni took the conservative approach, batted and walked away with the draw. India won the next match at Lord’s, but it was argued that England’s vulnerability in the second match could have been exposed earlier, potentially turning into a 2–0 lead in a series that India would go on to lose.

It was not an isolated episode, but there would be no repeats once Kohli inherited the armband. Encouraged by their captain, the Indian body language changed over a five-year period in which they competed almost exclusively as the best Test team in the world.

Batters marched barrel-chested out of the dressing room and a fast bowling group that resembled a hungry pack of wolves emerged to support the spinners.

The composition of the XI also changed to suit a more assertive tactical playbook.

Traditionally, Indian teams have started with four-man attacks, but a shift to a five-bowler strategy – made easier by the fact that spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are capable of hitting as high as six or seven – has improved attacking prowess. .

The most successful captains in Test history have vigorously chased 20 wickets and first Kohli and now Rohit have also felt the benefits of a change in attitude towards fast bowling in India.

While the 20th century produced a bevy of medium pacers, looking to break into wickets while keeping an end, the legacy of the once Dennis Lillee-managed MRF academy in Chennai at the turn of the 21st has been a high-speed production line who could compete with anyone. the globe.

The ability to attack with a full arsenal of skills has provided the variety to win anywhere, and India’s improvement at home is partly due to their improvement abroad. Winning, as they say, becomes a habit.

An inferiority complex in the away match against Australia was spectacularly consigned to history by back-to-back series victories in 2018/19 and 2020/21, the second of which was completed amid a massive injury crisis, Kohl’s absence and the fact that he was bowled out for 36 in Adelaide. 1-0 behind.

Batsmen like Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer emerged from the world of Twenty20 with a refusal to compromise on style, transforming a conservative team that was ranked seventh in the rankings in 2015 into a progressive team ready stood to embrace all scenarios and under all circumstances.

The fact that it no longer mattered whether they played at home or away, on flat pitches or on tough pitches, allowed confidence and momentum to develop in ways not possible in the past, increasing their all-round effectiveness.

However, some things haven’t changed. With bowlers of the caliber of Ashwin – who needs 10 wickets to reach 500 in Tests – and Jadeja, spin remains their biggest threat.

This has always been the case. When India sealed the series in 1993 by taking a 2-0 lead against England with one to play, the home spinners’ share of the 40 wickets taken was 85 percent. Last year, when they went up twice against Australia, the mark was 80.

Opponents know what’s coming. Stopping them, however, is another matter entirely, and it is worth remembering how India responded when England won the first Test in Chennai three years ago.

They did something they hadn’t thought of during the 2012-13 England Halcyon tour, when world-class duo Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar were in opposition and took things to the limit by failing to properly prepare surfaces.

After starting the series by posting 578, England were tested in turn and averaged 139 runs per innings over the final three matches.

These days, it’s hard enough to compete against India on a level playing field, let alone one that is in their favor. It emphasizes the magnitude of the task ahead.