Keith Fletcher to lead strong English team in India

The English are coming. Next month Keith Fletcher will lead what is possibly the strongest Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team to visit India. The stalwart of the MCC side is without doubt the stolid Yorkshireman, Geoff Boycott, now a ripe 40 and with 104 Tests under his belt.

Backing up Boycott will be a battery of stars: Ian Botham, prime mover of the recent English victory over the Australians in the Ashes, veteran spinner Derek Underwood, and 'golden boy' David Gower. All in all, this judicious blend of experience and talent is going to give the Indians a torrid time in each of the six Tests, and they will have to work hard to improve their tally. Out of 58 India-England Tests, India has won only seven, lost 27, and drawn 24.

That the English have turned out in formidable strength to take on the Indians is an index of the new respect the Indians have earned for themselves in international cricket. The days when Indian teams were thought of as pushovers - thus facing a second-rate English eleven - are long gone.