India is perhaps in the most comfortable mental space right now in the past two or three years. Especially after the 2019 World Cup. With the historic series win against Australia, India are in a commanding position. Also, in the World Test Championship rankings, India has taken the top spot. Amid this, Gautam Gambhir has stated that England does not have any chance to win in India. Although, he gave an outside chance to the visitors for the Day and Night Test.
“It has to be 3-0 India or probably 3-1. I’m only going to give a Pink Ball Test match, probably 50-50 to England just from the conditions point of view. I don’t see England winning any of the Test matches with the kind of spin attack they’ve got,” Gambhir said on a show on Star Sports.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Out and about at The Chepauk after 6 days of quarantine.<a >#TeamIndia</a> <a >pic.twitter.com/mt7FShNFrb</a></p>— BCCI (@BCCI) <a >February 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gambhir has been one of the rare open-critics of the captain Virat Kohli. He had recently questioned Kohli’s Test captaincy, but at the same time, also maintained that, ‘India has done very well under his leadership especially in red-ball cricket.’ So, when asked about Kohli and his outlook in the upcoming series, Gambhir said – “it clearly doesn’t matter if Virat hasn’t batted in Australia, obviously, he would love to, but the most important thing is that he has to look forward to is the England series and he knows that how important the England series is if they want to qualify for the World Test Championship final.”
Gambhir mentioned a very crucial point about the World Test Championship. The Test matches have become increasingly relevant and competitive since the introduction of World Test Championship since August 2019. The Top 2 teams in the WTC rankings will play the final of the competition on June 18, 2021. ICC says, ‘The WTC has been introduced to bring context to bilateral Test cricket.’ It is absolutely crucial for India to be in the Top 2 of the WTC rankings.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">India on 🔝<br><br>After the hard-fought win at The Gabba, India move to the No.1 spot in ICC World Test Championship standings 💥<br><br>Australia slip to No.3 👇<a >#WTC21</a> <a >pic.twitter.com/UrTLE4Rui0</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a >January 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When talking about England’s chances, he dismissed them even after the British being in good form after defeating 2-0 on their home ground. He feels they only have a chance in the ‘Day-Night’ Test as the English team have experience of paying the pink ball. He showed confidence in Indian bowlers and said: ““This is going to be a completely different challenge for someone like Joe Root. Yes, he has played really well in Sri Lanka, but when you have to face people like Jasprit Bumrah on any wicket, or for that matter, Ravichandran Ashwin, when his confidence is sky-high after what he has done in Australia, I am sure it is going to be a completely different beast and a completely different ball game.”