India are raging favourites: David Lloyd


Former England cricketer David Lloyd has said that hosts India are “raging favourites” in the upcoming Test series against England at home. The two sides are slated to play a four-match Test series beginning from February 5 in Chennai. 


India are coming into this series with a fighting win over Australia in their own backyard while England thumped Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka recently. 


“India are raging favourites, but it will be good for England to be underdogs. It will help them to have had two matches in Sri Lanka in what you’d think will be similar conditions. If I’m putting my two bobs, anywhere it’s on India,” mentioned Lloyd in the latest column on Daily Mail.


Adding to this, Lloyd mentioned the way India tackled their injury concern issues on the Australian tour with the mainstays getting ruled out one after the other. “India are the best in the world as they showed in beating Australia almost without the captain. They’ve got a balanced team and wonderful batsmen. Nasser says they will miss Jadeja, but Axar Patel is a very good bowler if they go the way of spin,” he added.


While Virat Kohli had returned home for the birth of his first child, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari were ruled out of the series as they had sustained individual injuries. R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah missed the final and deciding Test after the two were not fully fit. 


India eventually rode on the performances from the youngsters to seal the series 2-1 and defend the Border-Gavaskar trophy. 

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Shane Bond feels its time for ECB to get Hales back in the scheme of things

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