Over the past few years, India and England have given the cricket fans and the players so many memories to cherish. Particularly in the past decade, there have been moments like the Kevin Pietersen's century at the Wankhede, Panesar-Swann running through the Indian batting line-up, England’s series win in India which is the only loss for India in their own den in the last decade and a half and for India there has been the historic victory at Lord’s, the 386-run chase in Chennai or inflicting a 4-0 drubbing in 2016 where skipper King Kohli was the man of the series. 

The future is also nothing short of exciting possibilities and permutations as Team India tries to cement the spot in the ICC World Test Championship Final. So when the two teams take the field in the 1st Test in Chennai to kickstart England’s tour of India, expecting a blockbuster series won’t be so much of an over expectation. Join us daily during our Bharat Army show ‘Chat with Chhabra’ on Insta Story during the entire Pataudi Trophy as we breakdown Team India's performance. In the meantime, we go back to look at the Past match-ups, Head-to-head record, Indian Test Squad, England Test Squad, England Tour of India's schedule and Key Match-ups that could very well define this epic Battle Royale:

Past match-ups between India and England:

The last time these two sides met in a Test series was in England when the Joe root-led side defeated the visitors 4-1 in 5-match test series. The scoreline doesn’t quite reflect how closely the series panned out but this time the story may well be different. 

India is on a high having defeated Australia while missing several key players and breaching fortress Gabba as they won the series 2-1.  England will be aware of the result of India’s tour of Australia and they were impressive in their rehearsal of sorts of the India series as the visitors clinched the series 2-0 when they toured Sri Lanka in January. 

Head-to-head record: India vs England 

Total Matches: 122

Total Team India Wins: 26
Total Team England Wins: 47

Total Matches in India: 60 

Total Team India Wins: 19
Total Team England Wins: 13

Key Match-ups of the Battle Royale:

Virat Kohli vs James Anderson-

Strength: As for Kohli his strength will be the fact that Indian conditions won’t aid Anderson’s swinging ability much and when he comes into bat at No. 4, the ball won’t do much. 

Weakness: The conditions will be the weakness for Anderson but his ability might come to the rescue. 

Opportunities: Anderson has the chance to dismiss Kohli for the first time since 2014. 

Threats: The batting at either side, Pujara at 3 and AjinkyaRahane at 5,  of Kohli is pretty strong and might shield the skipper from Anderson’s threat if the maestro with 600 wickets does trouble the captain. 

Ravichandran Ashwin vs Ben Stokes-

Strength: Ashwin was impressive against Stokes in the previous tours, but Stokes has definitely become a better batsman in the past few years. 

Weakness: Ravi Ashwin may well be the only off-spinner in the Indian XI and that might actually play in the hands of India.  

Opportunities: Stokes has the opportunity of burying the nightmares that have come facing Ashwin in the past as the off-spinner has dismissed the all-rounder 8 times in Test cricket. 

Threats: India might bowl Ashwin every time this southpaw comes to the crease and that might turn into a major factor in deciding Stokes’ performance in the series. 

England Tour of India Schedule:

Indian Cricket Team Test Squad:

Virat Kohli (C)
Ajinkya Rahane (VC)
Rohit Sharma
Mayank Agarwal
Shubman Gill
Cheteshwar Pujara
KL Rahul
Hardik Pandya
Rishabh Pant (WK)
Wriddhiman Saha (WK)
Ravichandran Ashwin
Kuldeep Yadav
Axar Patel
Washington Sundar
Ishant Sharma
Jasprit Bumrah
Md. Siraj
Shardul Thakur

England Cricket TeamTest Squad:

Joe Root (captain)
Moeen Ali
Dom Bess
Stuart Broad
Rory Burns
Jos Buttler
Zak Crawley
Ben Foakes
Dan Lawrence
Jack Leach
Ben Stokes
Olly Stone
Dom Sibley
Chris Woakes
Jofra Archer
James Anderson

Where can I watch India vs England live:

The series will be telecasted on the Star Sports Network and Hotstar.