WI record against England

[Chrisps]

From 1974-1998, England failed to win a series in West Indies over six consecutive tours. This is England's longest barren run against a single country when on tour.

If Alastair Cook's team don't win in India this year, that will create a run of five consecutive failures by England in India. Look here for more detail on England's barren tours http://wp.me/p1OY5E-ck

Do you think, in four years or so, India will have matched West Indies' record of denying England a series victory in six consecutive series?

[mikesiva]

Very interesting, Chrisps, thanks for that....

To be fair, it wasn't just England who had a bad record against the West Indies teams of Lloyd and Richards, and even Richardson. The only team to win a series in the Caribbean during this period of time was Australia, who then embarked on a similar period of home dominance, as you alluded to in one of your graphs.

The situation with India is a bit different, since they've not really dominated like the great West Indies, or the Aussies led by Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and the early Ricky Ponting. There is no dominant number one nowadays, which is why we have a rotating number one - first India, then England, now South Africa.

It's possible that England may win the series, but if I had to bet money, I would put it on India. The problem with England's batsmen - they can't play spin. It's a good thing they recalled KP, because he's probably the only batsman in that team who's good at playing spinners. HOwever, one man alone can't put up a good batting total. Even the selection of fringe players is mind-boggling...Bopara, for all his faults, is a better player of spin than Morgan, and it was crazy to pick Joe Root, given that he hasn't faced any sensible spin in the county competition. This is a totally different level. At least Carberry had a decent Test match in Bangladesh, even though he was unfairly not given a run. I would've thought it would've made more sense to pick Carberry for this tour, rather than throw poor Root to the lions.

We'll see....