Last time I selected the best India Eleven in Test matches against India over the past forty years. Now it's England's turn, and there have been plenty of headaches because of all the candidates in almost every position.
Generally speaking, Graham Gooch has been England's most consistent opening batsman in this period, although Alastair Cook threatens to replace the moustachioed master. However, India was never his favourite hunting ground. Instead, there are three men who each played only five Tests in India and who each averaged more than 50. Two of them will be my openers with the other at number three. First up is former captain Andrew Strauss, who enjoyed two successful short series dating back six years. At Chennai in 2008 he even managed two hundred in the same match, only to finish on the losing side. His partner is Tim Robinson, the doughty Notts opener who earned 29 England caps before the West Indian quicks blew him away. In only his second Test, at Delhi in 1984, he compiled a match-winning 160.
Lancashire and Durham's Graeme Fowler was a dashing left-hander whose highest score was the 201 made in the victory at Madras (as was) in 1984. In the next game, he scored a patient 69 - and never played another Test! Nevertheless he is in my team, alongside the man who also scored a double-century in that Madras draw, Mike Gatting. Arguably England's least successful captain of all time, Gatts has scored more runs (862) in India than anybody in the past four decades, spread over 13 Tests. At number five is Paul Collingwood. He made hundreds in each of the 2006 and 2008 series, although neither was in the winning cause.
Two all-rounders make it into this fantasy team but each enjoyed considerable success in India with both bat and ball. Ian Botham's career zenith is often cited to be the Ashes 1981, but in the following winter, his batting was even better. He made 440 runs in eight innings, culminating in 142 at Kanpur. His other hundred came in the Golden Jubilee Test two years earlier. The most successful England touring captain was Tony Greig. Not only did he lead his side to a memorable series win in 1976-77 but he also contributed 724 runs and 21 fairly cheap wickets over ten Tests in the 1970s.
Few wicket-keepers made their mark in India but Alan Knott did at least provide some consistently useful late-order runs in the Greig era. That leaves three specialist bowling spaces. Derek Underwood took 54 wickets at 26.51, making him easily our best spinner in an era when India boasted several world-class slowies. Competition for the other seamer spots is particularly fierce. Jimmy Anderson has done quite well in recent times, and two Yorkshire stalwarts, Chris Old and Matthew Hoggard, each captured more than 20 Indian victims at under 24 apiece. Nevertheless, two ohers fared even better. Left-arm swing merchant John Lever took 10-70 on his debut at Delhi in 1976, as England won by an innings. He averaged under 14 in that triumphant series and finished with 32 wickets at under 20 in India. Sadly for him, his pace and swing were less successful elsewhere. He was brought back after a five-year international hiatus in 1986, versus India again, but this defeat was his final appearance in England colours. Bob Willis also enjoyed considerable success there, taking 32 at 22.37, taking most of the wickets left by Lever on that 1976-77 tour.
To summarise: Strauss, Robinson, Fowler, Gatting, Collingwood, Botham, Greig (*), Knott, Underwood, Willis, Lever.
But will this list change in a few months' time? Cook, Trott, Prior, Finn, Anderson et al could all be in with a chance. It should be a great series.
