India's batting will have
to come good
India will be hoping to take advantage of a depleted bowling attack of the opposition when
they take on an increasingly assertive England in their first
match of the NatWest triangular one-day series on Saturday.
Two of England's frontline bowlers -- Andrew Caddick and
Darren Gough -- are unavailable for the series due to injuries
and the inexperience in the bowling line-up is all too
evident.
True, even with the limited options available, England
were able to comfortably romp home against Sri Lanka in the
opening day-night match on Thursday, the 44-run victory
providing a major boost to the home team, which had suffered
losses to county sides in their practice games.
But England had the cushion of a huge total their batsmen had put up, and the bowlers were never really stretched.
It is because of this that the performance of the main
Indian batsmen would be very crucial.
Coach John Wright talked about the Indians being capable of putting the opposition under
pressure and his team must prove that capability tomorrow.
England are on a high after their 2-0 victory over Sri
Lanka in the Test series and the 44-run triumph yesterday and
the Indians will really have to fire on all cylinders to halt
their winning run.
With the Indian bowling line-up also not all that
formidable -- left-arm seamers Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra
have never played against England -- it will essentially boil
down to a battle of the batsmen.
Most of the Indian batsmen, including skipper Sourav
Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, have helped themselves to some
runs in the three practice games but their unpredictability
remains a problem.
Ganguly has fond memories of Lord's, where he scored a
classic century on his Test debut in 1996. He seems to have
carried his fine form to England from the West Indies tour as was
evident from the two attacking knocks he played against the county
sides in practice matches.
Tendulkar also had a match-winning knock in one of those
games and so did Virender Sehwag, who will continue to open the
innings with the skipper. Tendulkar has already said that he
would once again bat in the middle order in this series to
lend more stability to the batting line-up.
While conditions favour V V S Laxman, the stylish
Hyderabad batsman's place is uncertain in the final eleven,
as the Indians might be tempted to include the young brigade
of Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif in its entirety
because of the huge difference they make in the quality of
fielding.
England showed in the match against Sri Lanka how much
difference a good fielding performance can make and India must
take lessons from that. The fact that Mongia, Kaif and Yuvraj
Singh have also been getting runs heavily tilts the balance in
their favour.
In the absence of Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar will
suddenly find himself spearheading the Indian pace attack as
both Nehra and Zaheer Khan are new to this land. Both the
left-arm seamers are almost certainties for tomorrow's game as
the conditions are likely to suit their style of bowling.
But that would once again mean that only one among Anil
Kumble and Harbhajan Singh can play. It will be a pity since
both are match-winning bowlers and former England captain
David Gower believes the combination can pose maximum problems
to the English batsmen.
Kumble and Harbhajan, in tandem, will be a potent threat,
said Gower, as he watched the Indians play in the practice game
at Leicester on Wednesday.
However, it will be too much to expect the England
batsmen to dance to the tune of the Indians. The English team
has been on a winning spree in recent times and the confidence
level is sky high.
Batsmen like Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight, Michael
Vaughan, skipper Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe have been
consistently scoring runs
Veteran wicketkeeper Alec Stewart made a resounding
comeback to the national squad with a solid 83 against Sri
Lanka yesterday and he would definitely like to continue the
good showing in order to retain his place in the side.
Andrew Flintoff is another concern for the Indians. The
burly all-rounder had shown his big-hitting capabilities on
the tour of India earlier this year and he played a
magnificent knock yesterday.
Bowling can be a slight worry for England, with only
Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard, apart from left-arm spinner
Ashley Giles, as the experienced campaigners in their ranks.
The toss would be vital because both the sides would like
to bat first, put up a big score and put the opposition under
pressure.
Teams (from):
India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Dinesh
Mongia, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj
Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajay Ratra, Harbhajan Singh, Anil
Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Tinu
Yohannan.
England: Nasser Hussain (captain), Marcus Trescothick,
Nick Knight, Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff,
Ronnie Irani, James Kirtley, Jeremy Snape, Matthew Hoggard,
Ashley Giles, Alex Tudor, Michael Vaughan, Paul Collingwood.
Umpires: Steve Bucknor and Neil Mallender.
Match-referee: Mike Procter.
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