Mismatch or high-intensity battle?

What lessons can India take from the Ashes in preparing for Englandrsquos tour in early 2024 Can too much be read into Australiarsquos clinical demolition of India in the World Test Championship final at The Oval held before the Ashes and translating that into a drawn Ashes series Are we comparing apples and orangesEnglandrsquos team will necessarily be vastly different when they land on Indian shores in January The Ashes was almost a Dadrsquos Army bowling attack ideally suited to home conditions but one that will be woefully exposed on the subcontinent Stuart Broad has retired Jimmy Anderson should retire Chris Woakes is a vastly different bowler away from Old Blighty and Mark Wood has plenty of airspeed but will struggle to take the field with a long history of niggles real or imaginedIndia need to bat long and slow to force the bowlers to come back for repeat spells in sapping heat to force Ben Stokes to maybe bowl himself or Joe Root If India score 400 theyrsquore actually better off doing it over a longer period than to score quickly It will sorely test Englandrsquos depth especially without the tireless Broad to call on The new generation England bowler is made of glassmdashhe simply doesnrsquot have the durability to go the distance The physios wonrsquot allow itWe have no idea what the spin attack will look like If Moeen Ali at 38 was their best bet for the Ashes it hardly inspires much confidence in their depth If Australia struggled with the likes of Nathan Lyon and his excellent support crew Englandrsquos spin threats are out of mind and out of sight LiterallyThe great unknown of course is whether England have learned anything themselves from the Ashes Bazball experiment At the start of the series their blind loyalty towards Project SelfDestruct cost them the first two Tests You simply canrsquot even contemplate declaring when you bat first in India until you pass 500 and when yoursquore batting second and cruising along like the first innings at Lordrsquos you have to be ruthless and throttle back if necessary to build a sizeable lead as insurance against batting last Anything less is suicide especially against a team like India who play their home conditions to perfectionWhat might worry India is if England have refined Bazball and added common sense and humble pie to the recipe There is no doubt that their aggressive approach rattled Australia and it is the blueprint for how most teams should target the Aussies But if they allow their hubris to push too hard England will make the mistake again of having the game by the throat and failing to make the kill Indian pitches and oppressive heathumidity will require a different type of Bazball a more humble and reticent approach at times Whether this England mindset can embrace humility and the occasional strategic retreat is debatable Sometimes you have to surrender before you can win never truer than in India where to lose patience is to lose the battleRoot will be the biggest threat His ability to sweep and manipulate the strike is in stark contrast to the rest of the batsmen who have undoubted strike power but it is almost their Achilles Heel Like Icarus who flew too close to the sun gifted strokemakers like Zak Crawley and Harry Brook will need to bat ldquouglyrdquo at times when the AshwinJadejaAxar triumvirate is rushing through the overs Do they have it in them to bat time I doubt itThe toss will be less crucial in this series because if England win the toss and bat they will score so quickly or declare that the game may not go long enough to reap the dividends of bowling last Their preference is to chase down any total but thatrsquos not usually the preferred method in India Bazball on Day Five in India is yet to be tested but I would back Indiarsquos spinners against Englandrsquos swashbucklers any day of the week if conditions are typically IndianIndiarsquos main danger lies within If they fall for the hype and try to match Englandrsquos aggression they risk playing into Ben Stokesrsquos hand India made that mistake against Australia recently charging headlong at Matthew Kuhnemann and losing a Test after winning a crucial toss Let England claim the moral victorieshellip their colonial history is littered with sound thrashings dressed up as brave triumphs In this case imitation will not be the sincerest form of flatteryClayton Murzellorsquos Pavilion End column will be back next weekMichael Jeh is a Brisbanebased former firstclass playerSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper