Captain Rohit not underestimating attacking England

India have not lost a Test series at home since 2012-13 but captain Rohit Sharma does not want his teammates to start believing they are unbeatable in their own conditions.
Since Alastair Cook led a touring England to a 2-1 series victory more than a decade ago, India have gone on to win 16 consecutive test series at home.
Rohit’s team would begin as favourites in the five-Test series against Ben Stokes’s England but the home captain looked determined to prevent any complacency from creeping into their approach.
“No, no, not at all. At the end of the day, it’s sport,” Rohit said dismissing the suggestion in his pre-match press conference.
“By no means whatever records we have in the past decade or so gives us the guarantee that we are going to win the series.
“I won’t say we are not beatable, we are.
“We want to think that if we don’t step up or don’t show up well, we are going to find ourselves in trouble.
“We don’t want to be doing that.”
Especially against an England team, who are out to redefine how Test cricket is played with an ultra-aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach championed by captain Stokes and coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum.
“England obviously is a very good team, they play their Test cricket really well and obviously the last team to beat us here in our conditions,” Rohit said.
“For us it will be important that we stick to our strength and do the things that we know how to do.”
England have named a spin-heavy attack with Mark Wood as the lone fast bowler for the series opener.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would shoulder India’s spin load but Rohit did not reveal who between Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav would be their third spinner.
The India captain also confirmed KL Rahul, primarily a batter who kept wicket in the 50-overs World Cup last year, would not be deployed behind the stumps.
On what is widely expected to be a turning track, India would rather prefer a specialist though Rohit would not reveal whether it would be Srikar Bharat, who has played five Tests, or the uncapped Dhruv Jurel.

England’s Stokes ‘devastated’ at Bashir visa row
England skipper Ben Stokes said on Wednesday he was “devastated” visa issues had stopped teammate Shoaib Bashir from entering India for a five-Test series, as his counterpart said he hoped the matter would be “quickly” resolved.
Britain-born Bashir, a 20-year-old of Pakistani heritage, was unable to join the rest of the squad flying to India from a training camp in Abu Dhabi ahead of the opener in Hyderabad following a delay in his visa application. “I’m pretty devastated that Bash has had to go through this,” Stokes told reporters in Hyderabad.
“When I first found the news out in Abu Dhabi, I did say we shouldn’t fly until Bash gets his visa, but that was a little bit tongue in cheek,” the England captain said.
“I know it’s a way bigger thing, doing that. That was probably just (my) emotions around the whole thing.
“There was never a chance that we were not going to travel around this, but Bash knows he’s had our full support.”
The Somerset off-spinner is back in London, but it is hoped he will be able to play in later matches in the series.
“A lot of people are jumping through hoops to try and get this through quicker,” Stokes said.
“Hopefully we’re going to see him here over the weekend.”
India and neighbouring Pakistan are arch-rivals, both on and off the field.
A long-standing diplomatic stand-off between the two nuclear-armed nations has affected sporting ties, with India refusing to tour Pakistan or to play ICC events there.
Indian skipper Rohit said he felt for Bashir after the uncapped spinner was forced to return home.
“I feel for him honestly,” Rohit said.
“Unfortunately I don’t sit in the visa office to give you more details,” he added.
“But I hope he can make it here quickly and enjoy our country and play some cricket as well.”
The England and Wales Cricket Board later on Wednesday confirmed England spinner Bashir has received his visa for India and will join the touring team this weekend.
India are without star batsman Virat Kohli, who withdrew from the opening two Tests due to personal reasons.