Debasis Sen, Birmingham: A huge hoarding with a picture of England and Warwickshire cricketer Chris Woakes welcomed everyone at the Edgbaston cricket ground, the venue of the first test match of the summer. The catch line of the hoarding read – ‘It’s not just cricket. It’s an Indian summer.’
True, there is a huge interest generated among the Indian disapora here in the United Kingdom about the forthcoming test series which starts at Edgbaston from Wednesday, August 01.
The Indian cricketers were welcomed to Birmingham by a spell of showers which forced them to cancel their practice session on Sunday. It has been drizzling ever since Kohli and his men arrived here on Saturday. Indians had planned to reach Birmingham a day early and had cut short its practice match against Essex as well but rain played spoilsport for Virat Kohli’s team.
“We are getting to the Test match venue, because it wouldn’t have served the purpose here [in Chelmsford]. Instead of an extra day here, I think an extra day [of training] there would be more valuable … more familiarity with the venue and the conditions where you are playing the first Test,” India coach Ravi Shastri told the traveling media at Chelmsford.
The team management had planned for an extra day of practice at Edgbaston but it looks their preparation will be hampered further as more rains are predicted on Monday as well.
England on the other hand, will be happy to see the sudden change in weather which might help their seamers which boasts of the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. England is witnessing its hottest summers with heat waves taking a toll.
With Bhuvneshwar Kumar not available for the first three Tests and Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of the opening match, India will now have to depend heavily on Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami for the first test match in the absence of the top-two strike bowlers in the team.
The practice match against Essex which ended in a draw once again exposed the weakness of the Indian batsman (specially the middle order batsmen) against the moving ball.