Spinners might not play an important role in the Test series

England has always been renowned to be a fine location for Test matches, with the Ashes series popular amongst locals and cricket fans all over the world. Although England will be under pressure to perform as they will be on home turf, the Indian team under the guidance of Ravi Shastri, are not one to shy away from a fight. 

If the recent ODI series loss against England proved anything, it was that the Indians were not one to give up when times got hard. Their decision to include injury-threatened Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in the final ODI was a risky one that ultimately backfired and ruled the bowler out of the upcoming Test series. But that was also a statement of intent from the Indian management which showed that they were not fooling around, and they wanted a win.

Despite Bhuvi’s loss, the Indians are blessed with an arsenal of fast bowlers in the form of the fit-again Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. But an interesting addition to the team came in the form of wrist-spinning sensation Kuldeep Yadav who joined the team after impressive performances against South Africa and England in the limited-overs format.

The extreme summer conditions this year had reportedly dried up the pitches at Edgbaston which ultimately indicated that the English conditions would resemble those of Indian cities like Mumbai or Chennai as Indian Test deputy Ajinkya Rahane was quoted saying earlier. This meant that spinners would thrive on these surfaces in the upcoming five-match series. 

This forced the hand of Indian selectors to call up Kuldeep Yadav to the side and offer the visitors an extra edge due to his X-factor in the middle-overs. Not only the Indians, even the ECB pulled off a shocker as they included Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid in the Test squad to play in the coming month.

While the ECB faced some serious flak for Rashid’s inclusion, they have stuck by the 30-year old despite criticism from former players and captains as well. But the question remained, will spin really make that much of an impact in the series?

The answer could very well be no. A recent change in weather conditions and above-average ground staff at Edgbaston could be the reason why we will be blessed by those famous English Test pitches in the first Test on August 1. At one stage, the staff had put as many as 47,000 litres of water on to the outfield in 36-minute bursts. Till last Monday, the ground staff sprayed seaweed onto the outfield in order to ensure the grass retained moisture even if another hot spell occurred during the rest of the week. In addition to that, the city had experienced minor flooding in some areas on Saturday due to excessive rain.