After a defeat in the first Test of the series, at Chepauk, Chennai, India turned things around in the second, at the same venue, to square the series. The teams now move to Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad for the last two Tests. Along with India and England, Australia are in contention for a spot in the final of the ongoing World Test Championship as well. Ahead of the Test match, here is a statistical preview. England’s journey in Day-Night Test matches
0.562 India’s win-loss ratio against England (27 wins, 48 defeats) from 124 Test matches. This is India’s worst against record any side.
1 fast bowler has played 100 Test matches for India – Kapil Dev. Ishant Sharma is set to be the second (the first specialist, for Kapil was an all-rounder). Other than them, the Indian 100-Test club includes seven batsmen (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag) and two spinners (Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh).
2 Test matches for England at Motera. They have lost 1 and drawn 1.
3 wickets needed by Stuart Broad (517) to go past Courtney Walsh (519) and become the sixth-highest wicket-taker of all time.
6 wickets needed by R Ashwin (394) to become the fourth Indian and 16th overall to take 400 Test wickets. Among Indians, only Kumble (619), Kapil (434), and Harbhajan (417) have more.
6 wickets needed by Ashwin (59) to become the leading Indian wicket-taker against England at home. Only Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (65) has more.
8 runs needed by Joe Root (1,718) to go past Graham Gooch (1,725) and become the second-highest run-scorer for England against India. Only Alastair Cook (2,431) has more.
10 wickets needed by Ishant (302) to go past Zaheer Khan (311) and become the sixth-highest wicket-taker for India.
12 Test matches so far at Motera. India have won 4 here, lost 2, and drawn 6.
12 runs needed by Virat Kohli (988) and 45 by Cheteshwar Pujara (955) to reach the 1,000-run mark against England on Indian soil. Among Indians, only Gavaskar (1,331) and Gundappa Viswanath (1,022) have done this. Pujara is also behind Tendulkar (960).
14 fifties for Root against India, the second-most among Englishmen. Cook has 16.
49 draws between India and England so far. They have a chance to become the fourth pair of teams to play 50 draws. With 95 draws against Australia, 55 against South Africa, and 51 against the West Indies, England occupy the top three spots.
76 Test matches for R Ashwin. If he reaches the 400-wicket landmark here, he will be the 2nd-fastest to do so. Muttiah Muralitharan had taken 400 wickets in 72 Test matches.
119 runs needed by Root (881) to reach the 1,000-run mark against India in India. Among Englishmen, only Cook (1,235) has done this.
110,000 capacity of Motera after renovation, the second-largest for any stadium. Motera will be the largest venue in the world to host a cricket match.