IND vs ENG: Pitches Will Turn And Negate India's Strength - Jonny Bairstow On 5-Match Test Series

England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow spoke about his team’s upcoming Test series against India. England will play a five-match Test series against India from January 25 to March 11.

The Test series will be a part of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle. England faced a 1-3 defeat in the Test series against India in 2021 on spin-friendly tracks during their previous tour of the country.

This time around, they are expected to get the same spin-friendly pitches. Rohit Sharma after the second Test win against South Africa slammed the ICC for rating the World Cup final pitch in Ahmedabad average. He questioned on what basis ICC gives their ratings to pitches.

“Honestly, I would like to see how the pitches are rated. Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Centurion are all quite different. The overhead conditions are different. The pitches deteriorate fast when the sun is beating down that hard on the pitch. The conditions in India also – we know the pitch will spin. But people don’t like it because the pitch spins from Day 1,” Rohit pointed out.

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Spinning Track Will Negate India’s Seam Attack: Jonny Bairstow

Now Bairstow while speaking about the upcoming Test series against India said that India might compromise on their world-class seam attack if they prepare spin-friendly tracks for all the Test matches.

“India can produce different pitches: it doesn’t have to turn. We’ve seen how potent their seam attack has been recently. Look, I’m sure the pitches will turn: it’s whether or not they’ll turn from day one, which potentially negates a bit of their strength in their seam attack. We know how strong they are,” Bairstow told Sky Sports.

He further said that the England players know what conditions to expect when they travel to India and hence do not dwell on past performances.

“Obviously, the last time Axar and Ashwin played well. You forget that in that first Test match, the guys played really well, Rooty (Joe Root) got a double in the first Test match in Chennai and then conditions changed quite drastically.” We know that it’s the quality spinners, especially in India, we know that they are going to come at us. Whether Axar plays, whether he doesn’t play. Whether Jadeja plays or Kuldeep plays, who knows? ” We’ll have to wait and see. But there’s no point in overthinking things before their squad’s announced before we see the pitch and the conditions that (are) in front of us.”

He further said that the entire bowling lineup needs to take the responsibility to take the 20 wickets and not just the spinners. Stuart Broad retired from international cricket after the Ashes but James Anderson is still playing Test cricket and might feature in the Test series.

“I think it will be the whole bowling attack’s effort to go out there to take 20 wickets but it’s not just the spinners. The seamers have got a big job to do, the batters in the field have massive jobs to do” Bairstow added.

Heading into this Test series, India are placed second in the WTC points table with 54.16 PCT points while England are languishing in the 8th position with just 15 PCT points and two wins and as many losses from five matches.

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