Vengsarkar fears India's chances in England
Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar doubts the ability of the India's bowlers' to pick up 20 wickets on their five-Test tour to England in July
ESPNcricinfo staff
06-Jun-2014
Dilip Vengsarkar doubts the ability of the India's bowlers to pick up 20 wickets • Getty Images
Dilip Vengsarkar, the former India captain, has voiced concern over the ability of India's bowlers to take 20 wickets in a match during the upcoming England tour.
Ishant Sharma is the only quick bowler who has Test experience bowling in English conditions, and the rest of the quicks - Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron - have 13 Tests between them. Ishwar Pandey and Pankaj Singh are yet to earn their first caps. What makes it even tougher for India is that they have not played a five-Test series in over a decade.
"We need to have bowlers who can get them out twice," he said at the launch of a website for his cricket academy. "We will play with four bowlers and out of them you have to have two who can get 10 wickets in a match, and I don't see anyone [capable of] doing it."
India have two practice matches to help acclimatise to conditions before the first Test on July 8, but Vengsarkar believes it is insufficient.
"First couple of Test matches will be tough because they have no clue about the conditions and they must prepare well," he said. "Two practice matches are quite less, they must play at least four-five matches before the first Test match.
"They are going in the first half of the summer, it will swing and seam more than India. Youngsters will have to adapt to the conditions very quickly. In Australia you have to adapt to the bounce and England you have adapt to the movement of the delivery all around."
India's previous tour to England sparked off a lull in overseas form. They lost eight Tests in a row and went down 0-1 to South Africa and New Zealand. Their most recent victory away from home was against West Indies in 2011.
Vengsarkar is the only visiting batsman to score three centuries at Lord's, one of which came during a four-Test series in 1979. They had been in England for the World Cup and, he said, the extra time had helped the tourists.
"We were there at least a month in advance before the Test match started," he said "So we could adjust and adapt to the conditions."