With just two days left for an enthralling series to begin, what is your best playing XI for India? Click here to have a look at Cricwizz's best playing XI for India.
If we ask you who are your five best Indian Picks for this series, do you have an answer? Well, we have! Click here to know which five players we think will have an important series in terms of their future in the side and also performance-wise.
Who would you keep out?
However, do you have any idea which team is ahead in the head-to-head? England or India, who has won more games when we consider their last five confrontations? Let's analyze their last five meetings in detail.
Overall Head to Head
When we check their overall h2h stats, England are ahead.
Matches Played: 126, England: 48, India: 29, Draw:49.
Last Five Meetings
1) England vs India (Ahmedabad, March 4th, 2021)
The second of the two tests played at Ahmedabad, England had won the toss and elected to bat first. Batting first, England put 205 runs on the board, with key performances from Ben Stokes (55) and Dan Lawrence (46).
For the hosts India, the magic of Axar Patel continued as he picked four wickets, followed by Ravichandran Ashwin's three.
It was then India's turn to bat and after a poor start, Rohit Sharma contributed with a vital 49, Rishabh Pant, and Washington Sundar took the game away from the English.
Pant got out after a respectable ton (101), while Sundar remained unbeaten at 96. The local boy Axar Patel added 43 from his side as well but Sundar was unfortunate as wickets kept falling from the other end.
India finished with 365 and England had to overcome a lead and then set a target for the hosts. But this time, Ashwin and Axar enhanced their performances, picking five wickets each, as England's innings was summed up at 135 and India won the match by an innings and 25 runs.
Dan Lawrence was again at England's rescue but unfortunately, he couldn't do it alone.
Score: England-0, India-1.
2) England vs India (Ahmedabad, February 24th, 2021)
DO NOT MISS: @hardikpandya7 interviews man of the moment @akshar2026.👍👍 - By @RajalArora
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 26, 2021
P.S.: #TeamIndia skipper @imVkohli makes a special appearance 😎@Paytm #INDvENG #PinkBallTest
Watch the full interview 🎥 👇 https://t.co/kytMdM4JzN pic.twitter.com/QLJWMkCNM5
The third test and the first at Ahmedabad was a day-night test match also known as the "pink ball test" and England elected to bat first after winning the toss.
England were bundled up for 112, with only Zack Crawley scoring 53, while the rest of the visiting batting line-up failed miserably as Axar Patel and Ashwin dismantled the England batting.
It was then India's turn to bat and things didn't change much as compared to England's batting. The Indians did a better job but they were poor too, with only Rohit Sharma scoring a match-saving 66, while the others barely added to the total. India's innings concluded at 145. However, India's spin-duo for the series were on a roll again as England were all out for just 81 runs, with Axar Patel, the local boy, picking five wickets and Ashwin picking four.
India had a target of 49 to chase and this time, the openers made no mistake as India won the match by 10 wickets.
Know what's the score now? England: 0, India :2.
3) England vs India (Chennai, February 13th, 2021)
The second test between England and India was an encounter just after India's shambolic loss in the first Test against England at home.
A rarity, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Rohit Sharma scored a solid 161, with Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant scoring 67 and 58 respectively, as India finished their innings on 329.
Moeen Ali picked four wickets in that innings. It was England's turn to bat and they were struck by resilient Indian bowling, as they all out for 134, with Ashwin picking five wickets.
India had a lead of 195 runs and added 286 more to it in the second innings. This time it was their Indian skipper who scored 62 after the top order failed, while Ravichandran Ashwin took the responsibility with the bat too in this innings, scoring a crucial 106, setting a target of 482 for the English. Both Jack Leach and Moeen Ali picked four wickets. England had a mammoth total to chase but they couldn't cope up with the pressure and stumbled for just 164, with Moeen Ali being their highest scorer with 43 runs.
Ashwin hits 106 🏏
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) February 15, 2021
Wickets for Moeen & Leach ☝
Two outrageous Foakes stumpings 👐#INDvENG
Axar Patel picked another fifer, while Ashwin's three wickets helped India win the match by a margin of 317 runs, bigger than their disappointing loss.
The score is England: 0, India: 3. What do you think comes next?
4) England vs India (Chennai, February 5th, 2021)
The first Test of the series and the first Test at Chennai was a disaster for the home side and India would've wanted to forget as soon as they could.
Having won the toss, England chose to bat first. England then put a gigantic total of 578 on the board, with Dom Sibley scoring 87, the skipper Joe Root firing a brutal 218, Ben Stokes with an influential 82, Rory Burns, Olli Pope (doubtful for first Test against India), Jos Buttler, and Dom Bess contributed with 30+ scores.
In reply, India could only manage 337, with Cheteshwar Pujara scoring 73, Rishabh Pant scoring 91, and Washington Sundar scoring an unbeaten 85.
Dom Bess picked four wickets and England had a considerable lead to add to. However, India struck back strongly, getting England summed up for 178, with Ashwin picking six wickets. Joe Root was England's highest scorer with 40 runs.
India had a target of 420 runs to chase but they couldn't do much in the second innings either, getting all out for 192 runs, with Shubman Gill scoring 50, Virat Kohli scoring 72, while the others did not do much to the scoreline.
Consequently, India lost the first Test at home by a huge margin of 227 runs. What's the score after England's first win? England: 1 India: 3.
5) England vs India (The Oval, September 7th, 2018)
Well, the fifth of the head-to-head was the final series of India's tour of England in 2018. Like most of the time, England won the toss and chose to bat first. England scored 332, with Alastair Cook scoring 71, Moeen Ali scoring 50, Jos Buttler's 89, and Stuart Broad's valuable 38.
For India, Ravindra Jadeja was the top wicket-taker with four wickets. When India came out to bat, they did a decent job, scoring 292. Virat Kohli scored 49, Hanuma Vihari scored 56, while Ravindra Jadeja scored the most (86) and stayed not out.
However, he was unlucky to have no support from the other end. England came out to bat again with a 40-run lead but what happened next was a tough day to forget as England scored 423/8 and declared.
Cook scored 147, Joe Root scored 125, Ben Stokes added 37. India had a target of 464 runs to chase and KL Rahul helped India with a dream start. However, he got no support from the other top-order batsmen until Rishabh Pant came out to bat and scored 114.
After KL Rahul's wicket in the 81st over, India's hopes were half-dead and India's chance ended completely after Pant was dismissed just a couple of overs later. India were all out for a respectable total of 345 but lost the game by a huge margin of 118 runs.
That concludes the last five meetings between the two and what we see is that India have a slight advantage, with three wins out of the last five meetings. However, they played four of these tests at home, and thus, India will have to prove themselves with better performance than their last 4-1 loss in England.
What do you think? Will India beat the hosts this time? Or will India's incessant concerns on English soil trouble them again?
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