Any Test match between England and India is a huge occasion and never will it be more so than when the two giants meet over five days at Edgbaston next summer. Edgbaston will host the opening Test of the series against India, starting at 11am on Wednesday Aug 1, 2018. The number one ranked Test side in the world, India will arrive with a team with talent and charisma under Virat Kohli and determined to start the series in style as they seek to retain that coveted Number One spot.
England’s Captain Joe Root will battle against Virat Kohli with both now establishing themselves as two of the best batsman in world cricket. In this article we take a look at Root and Kohli in more detail who will no doubt be the key men for their teams.
We would love to hear from you! Please tweet us @Edgbaston who you believe is the better batsman between the two.
In February 2017, Joe Root succeeded Alastair Cook to become the 80th captain of the England Test team and has captained England to Test Series victories this summer against both South Africa and West Indies.
Root has played 60 Test Matches and scored an impressive 5,323 runs for his country with an average of 53.76. His highest score is 254 which he hit last summer against Pakistan at Old Trafford and currently sits second in the ICC Test Batting Rankings.
Root has been consistent with the bat and has already hit 13 centuries and 32 half-centuries and the skipper will be looking to inflict damage against India at Edgbaston.
His full potential poured forth in 2015 when he made 1,385 Test runs in the year, second only to Australia’s Steven Smith and vied with Smith at the top of the ICC Test rankings. Only Michael Vaughan had made more runs in a calendar year for England; nobody had matched his 2228 runs across all three forms of the game.
Making his debut in 2012 at the age of 21 and going on to establish himself as one of the premier batsmen in all forms of the game in such a short period of time demonstrates his drive, determination, cricketing intelligence and an ability to learn. He began with England’s sixth-longest debut innings in terms of balls faced, 73 from 229 balls as he displayed the patience and skill in the very first England innings.
He was voted Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2014, England’s Test Cricketer of the year in 2015 and England’s Limited-Overs Cricketer of the year in 2015. Root has been consistent with the bat and has already hit 13 centuries and 32 half-centuries and the skipper will be looking to inflict damage against India at Edgbaston.
Born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi and has already made 317 appearances for his country. Virat, the Indian superstar, has gone from strength-to-strength and has perfectly led from the front with both bat and his leadership skills and has become the first Indian captain to a record eight successive Test Series.
Kohli approaches 30 as the most relentless and popular performer in the sport. Unbelievably, Virat has hit more Test centuries (17) than fifties (14) and as a batsman he is already close to the summit: by his 29th birthday he had more ODI hundreds (32) than anyone apart from Sachin Tendulkar (49), and averages 49 or better in all three formats. He is the only batsman to have achieved this feat.
Virat has hit more Test centuries (17) than fifties (14) and as a batsman he is already close to the summit.
At the end of 2015, Kohli had Test hundreds, but hadn’t quite converted it into double tons. At the end of 2016, he had three, one each against West Indies, New Zealand and England. Kohli – the Test batsman, had finally arrived. He finished 2016 with 1215 runs, at a whopping average of 75.93. His Test average had passed fifty for the first time in his career. Kohli’s stats in 2016 were simply outstanding – nearly 20% of his career runs had come that year. His highest overall score of 235 runs came in 2016 and nearly fifth of his centuries have been scored in the same year.
He is widely considered to be one of the four great batsmen of his era, the others being Australia’s Steven Smith, England’s Joe Root and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson. Under Kohli, India have ascended to the No. 1 Test ranking and held onto it with an iron grip while also reaching the joint top position in ODIs.
Root vs Kohli – Wednesday 1st August 2018
It’s set to be a cracker and with the likes of Virat Kohli and Joe Root, two of the best batsman in the world, you simply don’t want to miss out on this fixture.
England have their strongest record at any home ground – a remarkable 27 wins from 50 Tests – Edgbaston will host the opening Test of the series, starting at 11am on Wednesday Aug 1, 2018. India have yet to win a Test Match at Edgbaston in their 6 previous encounters…we simply can’t wait for this one!
Tickets for England versus India Test match are priced from £29 for adults and from £16 for under 16s. Please visit www.edgbaston.com/tickets or call the Ticket Hotline on 0844 847 1902 to purchase.
