At Rajkot, India have to go back to basics to maintain home run

The pitch in Rajkot tends to be full of runs and India's batters will want to capitalise against an in-form England unit

The last time India and England met in a Test match at Rajkot, during the 2016 series, Joe Root got 124, Ben Stokes made 128 and Jonny Bairstow 46. Batting first, England amassed 537.

The bowlers had to toil hard. R Ashwin bowled 46.5 overs to claim 2/167, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav also ended up bowling 28.1 and 31.5 overs respectively. It ended up being a high-scoring draw but India were put under pressure in the second innings and dogged rearguard action by R Ashwin (32 runs) and Ravindra Jadeja (32₹) helped them finish at 172/6. England's two premier batters, Root and Bairstow, have had a quiet series so far but coming back to a venue where you have had some success is always good for the confidence.

Along with Stokes, they will be looking forward to batting again at Rajkot. But how good will the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium pitch be this time around? During the first Ranji game of this season, last month, Cheteshwar Pujara got an unbeaten 243 in Saurashtra's total of 578/4 declared.