'Conditions will shift from the North Pole to the South Pole' - Navjot Sidhu on transition from IPL to England Tests

The upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League is scheduled to conclude on May 25. It will be a brief turnaround for the Indian players before they head to England for the five-match Test series. The red-ball affair will commence on June 20, which gives the players less than a month to recharge and adapt. 

Former Indian cricketer, Navjot Sidhu, commented on the Indian Test team potentially facing more of a challenge in their games in England than the last time they toured in 2021.  

“The thing to be worried about is that the IPL is now coming up next. No one is ready to sit out the IPL. They will play the league and then all of a sudden comes the England tour. Conditions will shift from the North Pole to the South Pole. Completely different. Moreover, India’s last Test series in England had started on August 4. This time, it is ending on August 2 (4). The matches are in June and July. There will be grass and moisture and the air will be so heavy that the ball will gain ample movement. And then it will move more off the seam," shared Sidhu in a conversation with Sports Tak.

You will have to bring a mystery spinner with all of them: Sidhu

The former cricketer also highlighted the lack of all-rounders in India's Test unit in comparison to the scene in the limited-overs cricket.

“India’s biggest problem is that in the middle-order, there are no all-rounders the way you see in white-ball cricket. Is there a Ravindra Jadeja, or Hardik Pandya or Axar Patel? There is only Jadeja among these three and even he will be limited there. Will he take 4-5 wickets in an innings there? No. You will have to bring a mystery spinner with all of them, that is England’s weakness. But India won’t expose Varun Chakravarthy,” added Sidhu.

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IPL 2025 will witness almost all of the regular Indian side's members in action throughout what promises to be an electrifying spectacle. However, the subseqent long-format games are as much of a priority to Indian cricket. It will be an intriguing watch as to how the players manage their workload and performances ahead of the action-packed next few months.