Graeme Swann has picked 24-year-old Tom Hartley as England’s Axar Patel ahead of the 5-Test series in India.
Ben Stokes’ unbeaten Bazball team will face perhaps their biggest test so far as Rohit Sharma’s team host them for a 5-match Test series, starting January 25 in Hyderabad.
India have not lost a single Test series at home in the last decade. Their last home Test series defeat came at the hands of Alastair Cook’s side in 2012, with Graeme Swann playing a crucial role with the ball, along with Monty Panesar. England has since lost 4-0 and 3-1 on their last two tours of India.
On their 2021 tour, the England batters looked very much clueless in front of Axar Patel when the left-arm spinner snapped 27 wickets.
Now, England are bringing their own Axar Patel in the form of Tom Hartley, who has played two ODIs and is uncapped at Test level yet.
Graeme Swann said that Hartley, who has 40 first-class wickets in 20 games for Lancashire, has attributes similar to Axar Patel.
“When I saw Tom Hartley in Sri Lanka last winter, he’d barely played any red-ball cricket, but he’s got control and sometimes in India you don’t have to be the biggest turner of the ball,” Swann was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda
“You have to be an Axar Patel-type bowler: able to run up, be metronomic, put it on the spot, get a little bit of rotation on the ball, and let the pitch do the work.”
We’re going to play on some absolute square turners: Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann has already warned Ben Stokes and McCullum to be ready for a trial by spin, expecting nothing but extremely spin-friendly tracks in India.
“Let’s not beat about the bush, we’re going to play on some absolute square turners out there after what happened last time,” the off-spinner added.
India’s next Test match on January 25th at Hyderabad.
– Rohit vs Stokes. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/bMFbWQqlOI
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 4, 2024
Other spinners in England’s squad are Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed, and Shoaib Bashir, with Joe Root as a part-time off-spinner.
England Test squad vs India:
Ben Stokes (C), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood
Also Read: Predicting India’s Strongest XI For T20 World Cup 2024
