'Daunting test, but England's new spinners have a chance'

Batty on the challenge awaiting young guns

- Malik Ouzia

AMONG myriad reasons for India's extraordinary dominance on home soil, where they have not lost a Test series since Sir Alastair Cook's England visited in 2012, two stand out: Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Since first being paired in the final Test of that series in Nagpur, the spinners have shared a frankly ludicrous 428 wickets in just 40 tandem outings on home soil.

In opposition, England have travelled for a five-match series with Jack Leach, just back from a stress fracture, supported by three young spinners with just one Test cap between them and fewer first-class wickets than Joe Root, who will play as something approaching a genuine all-rounder over the next seven weeks.

To say the task facing Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir (right) is a daunting one would be to undersell the brief, not least because, at the time of writing, visa delays have prevented the latter from even setting foot in the country where he might bowl his first Test ball.