Ben Stokes took over the reins in the summer of 2022, after England had won one Test match out of 17. Under him, England have won 13 Tests and lost five. They are yet to lose a series; they swept Pakistan 3-0 at their den, and came back from two-down to level an Ashes.

They could do this by giving their bowlers enough time. For that, they scored at 4.67 an over – at least 27 percent quicker than they had under any captain – and made three first-innings declarations before reaching the 90-over mark.

In the era of this exciting brand of cricket, often referred to as “Bazball” after coach Brendon McCullum, England have drawn only one out of their 19 Test matches, and that was due to rain.

Indian vice-captain and spearhead Jasprit Bumrah praised England for taking the “aggressive route” to play “successful cricket”, but he also backed himself to get “heaps” of wickets.

At the BCCI awards night on January 23, a day and a half before the Test series, R Ashwin spoke on Bazball as well: “The kind of cricket they’ve been playing is amazing … with this wonderful brand of cricket that they’re playing and the way they’ve come here and that fearless approach. I think I’m standing here without knowing what to expect. So that’s the beauty of Test cricket and I look forward to playing this series.”

However, Ashwin is confident about the upcoming five-match Test series: “I think whatever you accomplished is always in the past. I’m someone who’s comfortably forgotten what’s happened in the past. And that’s probably one of the reasons why I’ve tried to improve every single day.”

Ashwin has 74 Test wickets at 27.77 against England in India. Australian Monty Noble (78) and West Indian Curtly Ambrose (76) are the only bowlers to take more wickets against England on home soil, while Australian Hugh Trumble also has 74.

Ashwin’s 88 Test wickets against England, at 28.59, are the third-most for India, after Bhagwat Chandrasekhar’s 95 and Anil Kumble’s 92.