Victory in the Champions Trophy, less than a year after clinching the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, put smiles on the faces of millions of Indian cricket fans. What hasn’t is the team’s dismal Test form, with a 3-0 home loss to New Zealand and a 3-1 reverse in Australia seeing Rohit Sharma’s side miss out on a third straight World Test Championship (WTC) final.
India’s next red-ball assignment is a five-Test series in England which starts in June, just weeks after the conclusion of the IPL. And though India have won only one series on English soil in nearly 40 years, Michael Clarke, former Australia captain, was confident that they have the tools to get the job done.
“[Jasprit] Bumrah fully fit, [Mohammed] Shami fully fit, Kuldeep Yadav in your XI, India will win,” said Clarke in the latest episode of Backstage with Boria. “I have been wrong before and I will be wrong again, but my gut instinct. If Shami was fit in Australia and, obviously, Bumrah does not get injured, I think it was a different series. I am not saying India win, but I think it is a different series.
“I think India really missed Shami. I really do. Shami would have been like Scott Boland if he bowled in Australia.” Shami’s last Test was the WTC final against Australia in June, 2023. “By the end of the IPL, he will be,” said Clarke, when asked if he reckoned Shami would be ready for England. “He got a bit of tap the other night, but I am not looking at that when I am watching him. I am watching his run-up. I am watching his rhythm.
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“I am watching that seam of the ball out of his hand. I am seeing, is there any swing away with that brand new ball? I am looking at that. I am looking at the length he is bowling, how it is kissing the surface. All those things I am looking at if I am thinking about him in Test cricket.
“Of course, he is playing Twenty20. You still want him to perform here, so he has got to bowl more slower balls, more yorkers, more change-ups. But if he plays the IPL and he gets through that, he is primed and ready. He is in. He has got to play.”
In Clarke’s eyes, having the first-choice new-ball pair, supplemented by the left-arm leg-spin wizardry of Kuldeep Yadav, would give India an outstanding chance of a first series win in England since 2007. “He is that good a bowler,” said Clarke of Shami. “And he complements Bumrah so well.
“Bumrah is the best. He is the best in the world at the moment. If you get those two fit, and pick Kuldeep Yadav as that X-factor wicket-taker, I think India can win the series.”
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