With England being in smashing form under Captain Ben Stokes and coach Brandon McCullum and whitewashing New Zealand, England is the favorite of cricket fans around the world and is rooting for them to win the fifth rescheduled Test against India.
The English all-rounder Moeen Ali has labeled India as “undercooked” for this upcoming test. He feels that it would be more difficult for India with their openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul being unavailable for the test. Rohit’s RT-PCR test results are still awaited, which means his availability for the match is uncertain.
Here’s what Moeen Ali said –
“If this series had finished off last year, India would’ve won it. If you had asked me 4-5 weeks ago, I would have said India would win. But now I feel (that) England will win. India are a little bit undercooked.” he said.
“Last year, India had four games under their belt. This time they’ve had a practice game and some net sessions. At the moment, England, in my opinion, are my favorite, because they’ve played three good Tests, and the way they are playing, they are very confidant compared to last year. Their mindset has changed and they are playing positive cricket. India will still be very difficult, they have a fantastic bowling side,” Moeen said.
With conditions being much drier than usual at Edgbaston, Moeen said that he would like India to play both their spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. “Ashwin and Jadeja are brilliant allrounders. I would play them both because the wickets and conditions have been good. I would go with three seamers and two spinners, ” he said.
Moeen had bid adieu to Test cricket last year because he didn’t seem to enjoy it under the then coach Chris Silverwood, but he took his retirement back with the change in management of the England Cricket Team. Since McCullum took over as coach, England is playing aggressive and positive cricket and is in a dominating form.
