India will start the return series against England as the favourite, waiting to take 'revenge' (despite their statements on the contrary) on the team that inflicted a 4-0 defeat overseas.
The English team have played three warm-up matches on their tour but have showed enough glimpses of weakness against whatever little spin they have encountered. The Indian think-tank have made sure that not much of top-draw spin was visible to the visiting batsmen. How this strategy will help the Indian tweakers remains to be seen?
The Indians have many problems on their side too. The opening batsmen (Sehwag and Gambhir) are not in their best form - Sehwag scored a century in his last first-class innings though. Pujara also did well against the English bowlers in his outing as a special invitee for Mumbai 'A'. Tendulkar scored a hundred for Mumbai while Yuvraj showed his form against the visitors both with the bat and ball. Dhoni is the only person who did not play any cricket in the last few days.
Ashwin also did not benefit much because of the weather that affected Tamil Nadu's first match in Ranji. Zaheer's fitness is another concern that the team management will have while Umesh Yadav's top form in his match would have made the Team Management hopeful. Ishant Sharma will warm the bench mostly while Ojha has done a lot of bowling in his match (not with great success).
Kevin Pietersen is the one player that the Indians will have to look out for. The rest are not ones that will take away the sleep of Dhoni and Fletcher (no ill-will to the others please)!
Overall, the hosts have shrugged off their rustiness in the outings they have got and hence the build-up to the test match seems to be quite even. If the pitches play to form and the Indians capitalize it well, the series will be over from the English perspective quite fast.
The English team have played three warm-up matches on their tour but have showed enough glimpses of weakness against whatever little spin they have encountered. The Indian think-tank have made sure that not much of top-draw spin was visible to the visiting batsmen. How this strategy will help the Indian tweakers remains to be seen?
The Indians have many problems on their side too. The opening batsmen (Sehwag and Gambhir) are not in their best form - Sehwag scored a century in his last first-class innings though. Pujara also did well against the English bowlers in his outing as a special invitee for Mumbai 'A'. Tendulkar scored a hundred for Mumbai while Yuvraj showed his form against the visitors both with the bat and ball. Dhoni is the only person who did not play any cricket in the last few days.
Ashwin also did not benefit much because of the weather that affected Tamil Nadu's first match in Ranji. Zaheer's fitness is another concern that the team management will have while Umesh Yadav's top form in his match would have made the Team Management hopeful. Ishant Sharma will warm the bench mostly while Ojha has done a lot of bowling in his match (not with great success).
Kevin Pietersen is the one player that the Indians will have to look out for. The rest are not ones that will take away the sleep of Dhoni and Fletcher (no ill-will to the others please)!
Overall, the hosts have shrugged off their rustiness in the outings they have got and hence the build-up to the test match seems to be quite even. If the pitches play to form and the Indians capitalize it well, the series will be over from the English perspective quite fast.
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