India captain Rohit Sharma (2L) and team’s head coach Rahul Dravid (L) in Hyderabad.© AFP
India are all set to take on England in the five-match Test series at home, starting January 25 in Hyderabad. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already announced the squad for the first two games of the series. While England will aim to repeat the glory of 2012 where they won 2-1 in India, the hosts will eye to maintain their dominance against the Three Lions in Tests at home. Indian cricket team’s head coach Rahul Dravid has given a hint on the kind of surface that will be offered for the first Test.
“It’s hard to say. We will see once the game starts and figure it out. It looks like a good one from where I have seen it. The pitch may spin a little bit, how quickly and how fast that I don’t know,” Dravid said in the pre-match press conference.
Rahul Dravid on Tuesday also said that Virat Kohli, who will miss the first two Tests of the England series due to personal reasons, is a “phenomenal player” and other players will have opportunity to step up and put in some good performances in his absence.
Virat Kohli will miss the first two Tests of the five-match series against England due to personal reasons.
India will play against England in the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. The second Test of the series will be played at Vishakapatnam, the third Test at Rajkot, the fourth Test at Ranchi and the fifth and final Test at Dharamshala.
Dravid said that any team will miss the absence of a player like Kohli.
“Any team will miss a quality player like Virat Kohli, there is no doubt about it. He is a phenomenal player and his records tell everything. He is a huge boost to the side but having said that it gives an opportunity to the other players to step up and put in some good performances,” he said.
“We have got some good experience in the squad. We have players like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who have played in the team for over a decade in Tests. There are some other great players in the team like Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer but I will not call them youngsters…They have been there with the squad for a time now and they have the opportunity to perform and prove themselves in the five-match series,” the former right-hand batter added.
(With ANI Inputs)
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