England tour of India, 3rd ODI: India vs England at Mohali, Oct 20, 2011.
Match scheduled to begin at 14:30 local time (09:00 GMT, 2:30 PM IST).
Mohali: It is the reversal in fortunes that has amazed the cricket pundits. When England landed in India they were expected to rout a depleted Indian team. Top Indian batsmen and bowlers are out of the series due to injuries they suffered during Indian’s just concluded England tour.
But without the top players the Indian team led by Mahender Singh Dhoni has badly beaten the English team in the last two one day international matches that have been played so far.
India Conditions:
Billed as the 'Revenge Series' India have gone about their work in stunning fashion, damaging England's morale to a large extent. They have also gone ahead of England in the ODI rankings and they will want to ensure they keep it that way with another win.
It came as no surprise that the selectors chose to put faith in the squad and play them for the remaining ODIs. The Indians have turned in two clinical performances to upstage the English and this is no real need to tinker with the line up ahead of the crucial game. Perhaps India's biggest headache will be the form of their openers, both AjinkyaRahane and Parthiv Patel, who impressed in England, have failed to give the hosts a solid start in the first 2 games and the team will hope the young duo click.
India will be very happy with the work done by their inexperienced bowling line-up. Vinay Kumar has been the surprise package for India with the medium pacer taking 4 wickets to help India restrict England in the last game. Praveen Kumar and UmeshYadav too have handled their responsibilities well which will please the team as well as the fans.
On the batting front, India will be delighted with the form shown by the middle order - ViratKohli, GautamGambhir, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina have all had good outing with the bat in the last 2 outings and they will be hoping the top 6 are enough to do the job in the 3rd ODI.
EnglandConditions:
England on the other hand will know that they have to do everything to ensure that they come out victors in the game. Trailing 2-0, it is make or break for England if they are to dispel comments that they are not good enough in the ODI format, especially away from home.
England form has taken a huge dip and they do not have one particular department to blame, their batting, bowling and fielding has been below what one has come to expect from England and they will need all three to click if they are to stop the marauding India side. Ian Bell, one of England's best players of spin will most likely be brought into the team but that will leave Alastair Cook with a tough decision of whom to leave out or how to tinker with the line up.
The English bowlers are clearly struggling without James Anderson and Stuart Broad and will hope Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn pull up their socks and put in a much better show.
Pitch Report:
According to the curator, the pitch will be a 'typical Mohali pitch' and will produce enough pace and bounce for the faster bowlers to trouble the batters. Dew is also likely to play a part later in the game and the team that win the toss would most likely bowl first.
Squads:
India Team: 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 AjinkyaRahane, 3 GautamGambhir, 4 ViratKohli, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 RavindraJadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Vinay Kumar, 11 UmeshYadav
England Tam: 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ravi Bopara, 6 Jonny Bairstow, 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Scott Borthwick, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Jade Dernbach
