Ind vs Eng Test series: Joe Root hails Team India ahead of five-match series

Ahead of the upcoming five-match Test series against India, England`s Joe Root feels that the opponents have all bases covered.

“You look at India`s progression as a team across all formats, and they have all bases covered – great seam attack, talented batters and a very strong spin attack,” Root told Sky Sports.

Root also expressed confidence in his side by saying that they have a good home record, but will also have a huge respect for what Team India will bring into the series.

“They are going to compete anywhere in the world, but our record at home makes for a fantastic series. We will go into it with confidence but also with a huge amount of respect for what they will bring,” he said.

The 34-year-old also said that people will draw comparisons with the Ashes during the India series.

“You know The Ashes is coming, and you will be asked about it. People will be trying to relate stuff in the India series to that, but you have a job to do against a brilliant team,” he concluded.

He will also look to chase Sachin Tendulkar`s record of 15,921 runs in the longest format of the game.

Along with Tendulkar, Root will also look to surpass Rahul Dravid, who has the best batting average among the players who have played the India-England Test series. So far, Root has played 153 matches and has scored 13,006 runs with a batting average of 50.80.

The five-match Test series will take place from June 20 to August 4, with matches scheduled at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord`s and The Oval (London), and Old Trafford (Manchester).

Ind vs Eng Test series: Squads

India squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.

England: Ben Stokes (Durham) – Captain, Shoaib Bashir (Somerset), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Brydon Carse (Durham), Sam Cook (Essex), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jamie Smith (Surrey), Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire).

(With ANI Inputs)

This article first appeared on Mid Day