How England can follow South Africa’s lead and play to their strengths to overcome a formidable India task

South Africa’s 2-1 triumph in January was fuelled by unashamedly favourable home surfaces that played perfectly to the strengths of their four seamers

Will England exploit the strengths of their bowling attack this summer? (Getty)

Joe Root was careful not to call it a comeback. He was probably right about that: drawing a series against the world’s No7 team in favourable home conditions is not the sort of achievement of which MBEs, open-top bus parades and ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries are made. The patient may have responded to treatment, but she is still some way from leaping to her feet and doing the floss.

Still, England’s first taste of victory champagne in eight Test matches stretching back to last September is a start, even if it largely taught us what we already knew: that England are formidable opposition when the ball moves around, as it did so lavishly at Headingley. The wider problem of whether English cricket is equipped to produce the sort of bowlers who can thrive when the ball barely moves off the straight remains, alas, unsolved. But England have at least averted disaster, and in the process may just have struck upon their only hope of giving India, the world’s No1 side, a decent game later on this summer.

There are faint parallels between this England side and the team that took India on in a five-match series in 2014. Then, England were reeling after being stunned in home conditions, this time by Sri Lanka. Then, a new-look England side was trying with mixed success to integrate a new generation of young players – Sam Robson, Chris Jordan, Gary Ballance, Moeen Ali. Then, the wider game was battling against a wider sensation of disconnect and cultural revolt – Kevin Pietersen and the Ashes fallout then, 100-ball cricket and public indifference now. Against all the odds, however, the home side went on to triumph 3-1, a curious anomaly in one of the more darkly tempestuous periods in recent English cricketing history.

The big difference, of course, is India. Four years ago, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team were a tired and sorry unit, their Test cricket muscles grown weak and weary through a relentless focus on white-ball cricket, a side propped up by makeweights like Pankaj Singh and Stuart Binny. By contrast, Virat Kohli’s side arrive as the world’s best Test team by clear daylight, with better batsmen, better seamers, a fit and settled team, enviable strength in depth and – until the start of this year – a stunning streak of nine successive series wins.

It is the series that ended the streak, however, that will most influence England’s planning ahead of this August’s showdown. South Africa’s 2-1 triumph in January was fuelled by unashamedly favourable home surfaces that played perfectly to the strengths of their four seamers: Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Lungi Ngidi.

South Africa played to the strengths of bowlers like Vernon Philander (Getty Images)

The average score was just 218, there were only two totals above 300 in the whole series and Virat Kohli was the only Indian batsman to pass 50. It was massacre by seam and swing, and in the wake of England’s Headingley triumph you wondered whether they might be tempted to go down a similar route. In short: will England attempt to take India’s terrifying batting line-up out of the equation with a procession of slow green seamers?

Of course, it might not prove quite as easy as all that. South Africa had a genuinely varied, world-class, four-man attack. They had three of the best batsmen of the modern age in Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and the vastly underrated Dean Elgar. India have their own battery of extremely handy seam bowlers, from the relentless Bhuvneshwar Kumar to the unconventional Jasprit Bumrah to the experienced Ishant Sharma. And the weather – especially if we get a hot, dry August – may not necessarily play ball.

Nor will it please the county chief executives relying on five days of crowds to fill the coffers. But as we saw during the 2015 Ashes, England are perfectly prepared to tailor conditions to their own advantage. Indeed, against a team of India’s pedigree, it could be their only hope. Close the windows and pray for cloud. It could be a green old summer.