Match: England v India
Date: 25th August 2021
Format: 5-day test
Stadium: Headingly, England
Trends & Recent Form
The English summer has finally arrived and this looks set to be a glorious 5 days of cricket between 2 top teams. The last test had us on the edge of our seats and seemed to be going England’s way only for us to fight back and get the win. If India gets another win here then they cannot lose this 5 match series.
England Test form
Latest stats and trends
- Saqib Mahmood looks set to make his England debut in red-ball cricket. He has made a big impact in the 1-day team and is eager to get his first test cap. Speaking recently he said he wants to emulate his hero, Shoaib Akhtar.
- Mahmood’s chances improved on Monday when seamer Mark Wood was ruled out of this match with the shoulder injury he picked up in the 2nd test.
- Dawid Malan has come back into the test team for this test. He has been playing well in the Hundred recently and will relish his chance in the longer form of the game.
- The collapse to 120 all out in the second innings was alarming from England. They should have been able to see the match out as a draw but fails to deal with Siraj and Bumrah.
- Joe Root was unsurprisingly the top batsman in the innings but his 33 from 60 balls was not enough to keep England’s hopes alive. Burns, Sibley, Sam Curran DNA Andreson all fell for a duck, Currans was a golden duck. Robinson, Bairstow, and Hameed all failed to get to 10 runs.
India Test form
Latest stats and trends
- Virat Kohli has now become the 4th most successful captain in Test cricket passing Clive Lloyd with the last win. He is now on 36 wins, next up is Steve Waugh with 41, then Ponting with 48. He has a long way to go to catch Graeme Smiths 53!
- Kohli has dipped in the test batting rankings, he is now down to 5th. His childhood bowling coach has come out and said that he is due a century in this test. In his current form, we wouldn’t back him to make a century! He needs 63 more to pass 23,000 international runs. He could pass Dravids 24,208 in time.
- Rishban Pant could break one of his own batting records in this match – most sixes by a wicket-keeper in a calendar year. his 16 in 2018 is the current record and he is on 15 so far. We would exepect him to surpass his record in the next 3 tests.
Match Prediction & Tips
The games so far have been interesting with both teams possessing the quality to hurt each other. England dipped slightly in the last test but if you look at their batting line up you can see the power they have. Joe Root will continue to be the danger man in this test.
India will be looking to build on the last win and get another result here. KL Rahul is the main man so far and will be looking for another century. The pressure is really on captain Kohli to put in a good personal performance as well as a captain’s performance. He has dipped this year and is potentially looking at his worst year in test cricket.
Match Prediction: India to win on day 5.
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