IND vs ENG: 5 Indian Active Batters With Most Runs Against England In Test Cricket

The Indian cricket team is scheduled to play England in one Test, three One-Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals in England in the month of July. The only Test match of the tour is the rescheduled Test for the five-match Test series during India’s tour of England in 2021.

India were leading 2-1 and before they could take on England in the fifth Test in Manchester, their contingent was hit with a series of COVID-19 cases and eventually the match was deferred. Both Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the England Cricket Board (ECB) mutually decided to reschedule the fifth Test in 2022, where India were already scheduled to play white-ball fixtures.

India and England have faced each other 130 times in Test cricket alone. Out of which, England won 49 battles whereas India turned victorious on 31 occasions with 50 matches ended with a draw. Legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar is the highest run-scorer (2535 runs in 32 Tests) in the old rivalry between these two teams. Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook leads the charts for his country with 2431 runs in 30 Tests.

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5 Indian Active Batters With Most Runs Against England In Test Cricket

Let us look at five active Indian batters who have piled up the most runs against England in Test cricket.

5) Ajinkya Rahane (840)

Rahane played his first Test series against England in the 2014 tour, where he amassed 299 runs in 10 innings at an average of 33.22 and scored 103 in the second Test at the Lord’s. On his second trip to England, Rahane scored 257 runs in the five Tests at 25.70 with the best score of 81.

Rahane wasn’t included in India’s squad for the rescheduled fifth Test against England due to his hamstring injury sustained during IPL 2022 while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders.

4) KL Rahul (847)

Rahul scored 199 in the Chennai Test of the five-match Test series against England, his first Test series against Alastair Cook & c0. It was also the same game where Karun Nair slammed a triple ton to power India to a commendable 759/7 in the first innings.

The Indian opener didn’t have great outings in the first four games during the 2018 tour of England but made a big testament of his guile in the Oval Test, scoring 149 in the second innings to lead India’s resistance along with Rishabh Pant.

After a two-year hiatus from red-ball cricket, the Karnataka player made a stellar comeback against England in the four Tests in 2021. Rahul replaced injured Mayank Agarwal in the five-match series. He 315 runs in four Tests at 39.38 and also made it to the Lord’s Honours Boards for his 129 in the second Test.

Unfortunately for the Indian team, Rahul will miss the England tour this year to travel to Germany for his medical treatment.

3) Ravichandran Ashwin (970)

Ashwin has scored 970 runs against England in 31 innings at an average of 37.30 with six fifties and one century since playing against them for the first time in 2012 in Ahmedabad. His best Test series in terms of the bat was the 2016 home series, amassing 306 runs at 43.71 with four half-centuries, only England batter Joe Root hit the same number of the fifties in that series from both sides.

Ashwin hit 106 in the second Test against England in Chennai during the four-match home series in 2021. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder was benched in all four Tests of India’s tour of England in 2021 as Ravindra Jadeja was preferred ahead of him.

2) Cheteshwar Pujara (1699)

Pujara’s series score against England in six Test series read as follows – 438 (2012), 222 (2014), 401 (2016), 278 (2018), 133 (2021 in India), 227 (2021 in England). Pujara slammed his maiden double-hundred against England in the Ahmedabad Test in 2012.

The Saurashtra batter has accumulated 1699 runs against England in 26 Tests at 39.51 with six half-centuries and three hundreds, he has scored more runs only against Australia – 1893 runs in 20 Tests. Pujara had a lean patch in the first two matches but scores of 91 and 61 regained his momentum.

Pujara has been named in the 16-member Test squad for the rescheduled fifth Test in Birmingham. India would rely on their experienced red-ball campaigner to score runs against Anderson & co. Pujara will also take a cue from his county stint with Sussex in the 2022 County Championship, scoring 624 runs at an average of 124.80 in just 7 innings.

1) Virat Kohli (2353)

Kohli might be going through a tough phase in his career but the records can never be overlooked to define the guile of the Indian prolific batter. Kohli has hit five of his 27 Test hundreds against England.

Kohli was twice the leading run-scorer of the India-England Test series. He scored 655 in eight innings in 2016 at home followed by a massive comeback in 2018 in England with 593 runs in 10 innings. Kohli was the victim of James Anderson in the 2014 tour but came with his homework against his nemesis in India’s 2018 tour of England.

The former Indian skipper made 218 runs in four Tests against England in their own backyard. His fans could expect him to break the shackles and score the much-anticipating 71st international hundred in the series-decider game against England.