Former Indian skipper Dilip Vengsarkar has voiced concerns about India's chances in the upcoming England series. Vengsarkar fears that Indian bowlers are not capable of taking 20 wickets to win a Test match in the English conditions.
India is heading with an inexperienced bowling attack with only Ishant Sharma familiar with the English conditions. Mohammed Shami, Varun Aaron and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are relatively new in the team, while Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey are yet to make a debut.
Seasoned pacer Zaheer Khan, who masterminded India's last victory in England, with a five-wicket haul in the second innings and eventually finishing with nine wickets of the Trent Bridge Test, has also failed to make the cut for the England tour.
In their last England tour, India failed to register even a single win as they were hammered in the four-match Test series 4-0, lost the five-match ODI series 3-0 and the lone T20 international as well.
"We need to have bowlers who can get them out twice," Vengsarkar said. "We will play with four bowlers and out of them you have to have two who can get 10 wickets in a match, and I don't see anyone (capable of) doing it."
Vengsarkar said the bowlers will have no clue about the wickets and they have to adjust quickly to the seaming and swinging English conditions. He added that the two warm-up games will help the team to prepare for the five-match Test series and to acclimatise to the pitches.
The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side is slated to play two three-day games against Leicestershire and Derbyshire before facing England at Trent Bridge in the first Test, starting July 9.
"First couple of Test matches will be tough because they have no clue about the conditions and they must prepare well," the former skipper said. "Two practice matches are quite less, they must play at least four-five matches before the first Test match.
"They are going in the first half of the summer, it will swing and seam more than India," he added. "Youngsters will have to adapt to the conditions very quickly. In Australia you have to adapt to the bounce and England you have adapt to the movement of the delivery all around."
Vengsarkar is not completely ruling out India's chances in the series and is hopeful that the players will adjust to the conditions as they are heading there well in advance. "We were there at least a month in advance before the Test match started," he said. "So we could adjust and adapt to the conditions."
Lately, India have a pitiable overseas record, as they have been defeated by New Zealand (1-0) and South Africa (1-0) in recent series. India's last away Test win came against West Indies in 2011.
