Will India be able to stop the fiery England team? – Part 1
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 have lost the first two Tests of the four-match series against England and will be under immense pressure to come out of the bad form in the upcoming game at the Edgbaston, Birmingham in England on Wednesday, August 10, 2011.
Although the series cannot be won by the tourists, they will try their level best to draw it by winning the next two games. It will not be an easy task though, as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 have been growing in confidence in the longest version of the game.
The most important thing for the Men in Blue will be their skipper MS Dhoni’s form. The veteran has struggled to keep wickets to some extent, but he has been simply below par with his batting form.
Dhoni led India to a historic win in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 and will need some inspiration from that tournament.
The team had lost both their in form openers http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SR-Tendulkar-c2556 early, but the skipper played a magnificent knock for his side, guiding them to a spectacular win by hitting a massive six.
The number one Test team in the world requires that sort of performance from their captain in order to keep their top spot in the ICC Test team rankings.
India will be boosted by the return of their regular pair of openers in the third match of the series. The team had missed flamboyant opening batsman Sehwag, who was out of action due to a shoulder injury.
However, the explosive player will make his return to the team in the upcoming Test at Birmingham. Sehwag featured in the tour match against Northamptonshire, but failed to make an impression.
The aggressive right-handed batsman was dismissed after adding just 8 runs to the total from 25 deliveries with the help of one boundary. He will like to forget that performance as soon as possible and score some runs for his struggling side.
On the other hand, Sehwag’s opening partner Gambhir was also out of the second Test following a back injury. He did feature in the opening game of the series, but failed to make an impression.
The veteran left-handed opener was also a part of the team, which featured against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Northamptonshire-c824. However, he was also unable to score much runs in the match, getting out for 18 runs off 55 deliveries.
A difficult thing for the visitors will be to choose their playing-11 for the third Test. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abhinav-Mukund-c41758 was likely to miss the game, making way for the regular openers. However, the youngster scored an unbeaten 113 runs in the tour match, which will make
it difficult for the management to drop him.
India’s number 3, 4 and 5 will not change unless there is an injury to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 or Tendulkar. Although the latter of the three has struggled to score many runs in the series, he will still be a part of the playing-11.
Another difficult choice for the management will be to make a choice between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SK-Raina-c2539. Both left-handed batsmen have scored one half-century each in the series and can come handy with the ball if the pitch offers some assistance to the
spinners.
Not only the Indian batsmen have struggled to perform, the bowlers have also been not up to the mark. There have been a few good performances from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/I-Sharma-c1566, but in patches. They have failed to make a big impression in the first two
games, even in bowling friendly conditions.
Veteran spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-Mishra-c871 or an additional seamer, depending on the pitch condition at Birmingham.
Tags: