Courtesy: BCCI
With every passing or approaching contest, a cricketer nears a milestone or two. Some numbers could be sullen or drab, but there are always those that endear our hearts with a sense of joy and make, especially Test cricket, such a delight to watch.
As the England versus India Test series is all set to begin in what could be a clash between two titans of the game, England playing at home with solid experience whilst a rather young-looking Indian team all set to beat expections, what milestones are some of the Indian cricketers approaching in the game's classic format?
Indian players close to reaching milestones in England Test series
KL Rahul
The most elegant batter in the entire playing eleven and purely on experience, a veteran of sorts in that he made his Test debut at a time where the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sachin had already been two years into their retirement, circa 2014.
KL Rahul, with the natural ability to time the cricket ball and find the gaps and place the red ball into them effectively, is a dependable lad. And he needs to hit just 45 more runs against England to score 1000 runs against this mighty opponent.
His Test numbers already boast of three centuries of the eight he's made against England and forget not, even the dazzling 199 came against them. Time to hit some of that kind of purple form, KL?
Yashasvi Jaiswal
One of the things that really excites the cricket fan about the contemporary structure of Team India is Yashasvi Jaiswal, the daring left hander. A proponent of fearless cricket, albeit a batter whose game is built of the foundation of focus and timing the ball, Yashasvi Jaiswal is surely one to watch closely as a team without Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara is in England.
But at the moment, the left hander who has an experience of 19 test matches against his name is also on the cusp of a Test cricket landmark.
All he needs are 202 runs to reach 2000-run mark in the five-day game. Can he get there?
No reason to think why he can't. After all, Jaiswal likes to stay put at the wicket.
Rishabh Pant
One of the most charismatic and exhilarating talents of the current Indian cricket team, Pant, a free-stroking left-hander wicketkeeper bat would like to think of himself as an experienced name in the playing eleven.
And there's little surprise as to why that is the case. The current team in England is one that neither has seasoned match-winning spinners like R. Ashwin nor the gifted legendary strokemakers like Kohli. Which is why Pant's scoring runs and his overall experience with the Indian team becomes important.
He's been to England before as well and in 2021, had an exciting contest against the likes of Broad, Anderson and Woakes.
However, should Rishabh Pant hit just seven more fours on this tour, he would have hit boundary number 100 against England in international Test match cricket.
To hit a century of fours against just one team, in itself, is a huge feat and if there's someone who can do it easily, then it's Rishabh Pant.
Moreover, with 781 Test runs against England, should Pant fire a fifty or two or at best, a century, he will take his career run tally closer to 1000 runs against the English. So, let us watch out for that one, too!
Shubman Gill
The newly appointed captain of the Indian test team will have a lot to play for, and have a lot to live up to. This is a contest, where as we know, there's neither the troika of Virat, Rohit or Ashwin and definitely not some of the other experienced campaigners like Pujara, who was once a test phenomenon.
At this point in time, Gill is one of the best batters of his unit himself.
And what's more? The tall right hander needs to hit just 107 more runs to touch the 2000-run Test mark. And he can definitely get there, isn't it?
