England take on India in India in a 5-Test series. They are the are the fourth non-Asian team to visit Asia this year, and so far all three have not won their respective series. The last non-Asian team to win in Asia was South Africa in 2014 when they beat Sri Lanka 1-0 in 2-Test series. England is the last team that beat India in India… will they breach the Asian fortress ?.
A quick look at how non-Asian teams performed in Asia this year. Here is a list of primary indicators of those series.
| Series | Result | Tests | Test win for visiting teams | |
| 1 | Australia in Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka won 3-0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | NZ in India | India won 3-0 | 3 | 0 |
| 3 | WI v Pak in UAE | Pak won 2-1 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | Eng in Bangladesh | Drawn | 2 | 1 |
| 11 | 2 |
Here are some vital defining facts of the series.
- In 11 Tests no visiting team was able to achieve a big score. The highest score was 379 by Australia. In 20 Inns only thrice visiting teams went past 300 score but never were able to reach 400.
- Apart from West Indies in one game, all other visiting team lost their 20 wickets!.
- Only four centuries scored by visiting teams. Host scored 10 centuries.
- 37 % were LBW and 51.62 % were bowled and LBW.
Below table is performance for visiting team in Asia this year(2016).
| Batting | Test in 2016 | Bowling | ||||||||
| Aus | ENG | NZ | WI | Total | Indicators | Total | PAK | IND | BAN | SL |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 | Tests | 11 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Won | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 400 score | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | Centuries | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 19.90 | 23.50 | 22.50 | 30.60 | 24.00 | Avg | 35.90 | 41.60 | 47.60 | 25.70 | 29.60 |
| 2.84 | 3.01 | 2.99 | 2.83 | 2.91 | R/O | 3.41 | 3.43 | 3.39 | 3.45 | 3.38 |
| 42.07 | 46.98 | 45.27 | 64.91 | 49.72 | Balls/wkts | 63.03 | 72.78 | 84.28 | 43.83 | 52.77 |
| 24.84 | 27.09 | 23.16 | 24.23 | 24.60 | Scoring rate | 29.55 | 31.69 | 29.06 | 29.78 | 27.69 |
| 4.99 | 4.90 | 6.70 | 5.15 | 5.46 | Boundary rate | 6.23 | 4.76 | 7.15 | 6.27 | 6.72 |
| 16.01 | 18.52 | 13.40 | 15.13 | 15.49 | Singles | 18.62 | 20.34 | 19.09 | 18.71 | 16.12 |
| 19.85 | 22.19 | 16.46 | 19.08 | 19.14 | Lesser scoring shots | 23.32 | 26.93 | 21.91 | 23.50 | 20.98 |
| 22.14 | 16.33 | 20.81 | 18.69 | 19.63 | %mdn | 15.52 | 11.75 | 16.08 | 16.15 | 18.59 |
| 23.33 | 30.00 | 36.67 | 23.64 | 28.37 | Lbw | 21.62 | 13.33 | 25.58 | 25.00 | 22.81 |
| 25.00 | 20.00 | 23.33 | 23.64 | 23.26 | Bowled | 16.2 | 28.89 | 6.98 | 12.50 | 15.79 |
| 6.67 | 2.50 | 5.00 | 5.45 | 5.12 | Run out | 1.08 | 2.22 | 2.33 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Partnerships
On the surface this part of their game was reasonable, with 30 times teams it went past 50runs (7 x 100 plus), however it was the collapse that the teams were not able to arrest. This led them to lose the game eventually. The collapse was either at the beginning or in the middle, and the end was always short, as no rescue attempt was made by lower-order and tail-enders to resurgent their innings.
The start was so bad, that 10 times(out of 20 inns) teams lost their first four wickets inside 100 runs. And when the start was excellent which happened in only 4 Inns (50 plus partnerships for opening stand) they collapsed badly.
Here is a list
- England v Bangladesh (2nd Test/2nd Inn) Target 273- started extremely well at 100-0 but were bundled out for 164.
- NZ v Ind (2nd Test/2nd Inn) Target 376 – after losing their second wicket at 104 they were bundled out for 197.
- NZ v Ind(3rd Test/1st Inn) after posting 118 for 1st wicket, they were all out for 299.
- Aus v SL (3rd Test/2nd Inn)Target 324- Had a solid start openers putting on 77 runs and the second wicket falls at 100…but were bundled out for 160!.
Here is how partnership graphic looks like.
| partnerships | Avg |
| 1st wkt | 29.36 |
| 2nd wkt | 36.82 |
| 3rd wkt | 22.18 |
| 4th wkt | 22.45 |
| 5th wkt | 29.86 |
| 6th wkt | 36.5 |
| 7th wkt | 20.38 |
| 8th wkt | 19.57 |
| 9th wkt | 13 |
| 10th wkt | 7.47 |
