Leeds Test: Problem Of Plenty For India, Injury Woes For England

Team India are in an enviable position of being 1-0 up in an away series in England at the end of two tests. It could very well have been 2-0 as well.

However, Virat will be happy with the 1-0 lead at the moment, since the win came after a spectacular final day performance at the 2^nd test. First, the Indian tail put up an amazing batting performance after a gritty partnership by Ajinkya and Pujara. The pace attack destroyed the English batting with focused hostility and aggression, reminding one of a pack of wolves.

The stage now moves on to Leeds, Headingley. The two teams will square off on August 25 for the 3rd test of the series.

Speaking of the forthcoming test, Mark Wood joins the English team’s injury list of Archer, Broad, Stone, and Woakes. Ben Stokes’ unavailability to focus on mental well-being adds to England’s woes. Further, only Joe Root seems to be in batting form and Jimmy Anderson is the only threat with the ball.

In contrast, India has pleasant selection headaches about who to play and who not to. Shardul Thakur is fit again and incredibly Umesh Yadav is the 6th fast bowling option.

However, it seems that India may well go in with the same pace quartet of Shami, Bumrah, Ishant and Siraj, who menacingly crafted the test win at Lords. What about Ashwin? That will be the captain’s call, and maybe Virat will prefer to go in with Jadeja again.

As to the Indian batting, the form of the openers has been heartening. Virat will be looking to have a big one, while Pujara and Ajinkya will have more confidence after their dour batting helped India immensely from a position of stress (28/3) to one of relative comfort. Rishabh Pant is due for a big knock as well.

Face To Face At Leeds

India and England have faced off at Leeds for six times so far. The first three tests were won by England and the last two by India with a draw in between.

Let us have a quick look at these six tests.

Test Number One. June 5-9, 1952, England won by 7 wickets.

Batting 1st, the two Vijay’s (Merchant and Hazare) took India to 264/3 before a spectacular collapse saw India folding up for 293. Vijay Merchant scored 133 and Vijay Hazare scored 89. India lost 3 wickets at 264, that of both the Vijay’s and C Gopinath. The last 4 wickets added just 29 more. For England, Jim Laker took 4 wickets, while Trueman and Bedser took 3 and 2 wickets, respectively. England was 211/6 at one stage, but the tail wagged and England reached 334. Tom Graveney was the highest scorer with 71 while Godfrey Evans scored 66. Ghulam Ahmad took 5 wickets for India. A lead of just 41 meant that India had a chance. However, India was reduced to 0-4 and 26-5 and that effectively killed the contest. Finally, India reached 165, courtesy 56 by Hazare and 64 by Dattu Phadkar but the victory target was just 125 which England knocked off easily, losing three wickets. Trueman and Jenkins took 4 wickets each while Beder took 2 wickets. Truman made a terrific debut with 7 wickets.

Special mention. Sadu Shinde played for India. He is the father-in-law of top political leader Sharad Pawar.

Test Number Two, July 2-4, 1959. England won by an innings and 173 runs.

Batting 1st, India scored just 161, with as many as five Indians being out in the 20’s and Polly Umrigar being the highest scorer with just 29. Harold Rhodes took 4 wickets while Truman took 3. England batted India out of the test by scoring 483/8 with Colin Cowdrey top-scoring with 160. Ken Barrington scored 80 while the openers Gilbert Parkhouse and Geoff Pullar scored 78 and 75. Subhash Gupte took 4 wickets for India. India fared even worse in the second knock and were all out for 149, with Umrigar scoring 39 and Chandu Borde top-scoring with 41. For England, Brian Close took 4 wickets and John Mortimore took 3.

Test Number Three. June 8-13, 1967. England won by 6 wickets

Batting first, England piled up 550/4 with Geoff Boycott top-scoring with 246 not out. Basil D’Oliviera scored 109 and Ken Barrington scored 93. India were 164 all out and asked to follow on. In an extraordinary 2nd innings batting performance, India scored 510 with Tiger Pataudi scoring 148, while Engineer, Wadekar and Hanumant Singh scored 87, 91, and 73, respectively. However, India’s poor 1st innings performance meant that England needed just 125 to win and they did so, winning by 6 wickets. It was England’s 3rd consecutive win at this venue

Test Number Four. August 16-21, 1979. Match drawn

The winning streak of England came to a close. Day 2 and Day 3 were totally washed out. England was 80/4 at the end of day one and on the 4th day ended up with 270. Ian Botham top-scored with a terrific 137. India was 12/3 at one stage, but gritty batting by Sunny Gavaskar (78), Yashpal Sharma (40), and Dilip Vengsarkar (65 not out) saw India reach 233/6 at the end of day five. Botham was the man of the match.

Test Number Five. June 19-23, 1986. India won by 279 runs

India won a test at Leeds for the first time with a convincing all-round performance. Batting 1st, India reached 272 with Dilip Vengsarkar top-scoring with 61 and useful 30s by Gavaskar, Srikkanth, Shastri, and More. India bowled out England for just 102 with Binny and Madan Lal taking 5 and 3 wickets, respectively. 170 was a huge lead, and Dilip Vengsarkar with 102 not out took India to 237. Vengsarkar came in at 9/2 and India was 70/5 at one stage but expert batting with the tail and a useful 31 by Kapil saw India set a huge target of 408. England once again collapsed and was 128 all out with Maninder Singh taking 4/26. Vengsarkar was the man of the match.

Test Number Six. August 22-26, 2002. India won by an innings and 46 runs.

India had their second consecutive win at this venue, once again with an all-round performance. Dravid (148), Tendulkar (193), and Ganguly (128) took India to a humungous 628/7 and then declared. England scored 273 with the spin twins Kumble and Bhajji taking 3 wickets each. Following on, a Nasser Hussein century (110), taking England to 309. But that could not prevent an innings defeat. Kumble took 4 wickets to end with 7 in the match. Dravid was the man of the match.