The first ODI of the series between England and India gets played Saturday at Chester-le-Street. And it would be fair to say that there would be many fans who would give an arm and leg to be flies in the Indian dressing room. Five internationals into the tour, and India have lost all five of them and for the first time in many years did one finally feel a sense of anger in the Indian captain MS Dhoni last game.
England V India 1st ODI At Chester-le-Street Live: Can India Win, Tendulkar Get 100 100s?
Will India be able to turn things around and win their first game on their tour of England when they play the hosts at Chester-le-Street?
And things will not get easier; the English side will outfield India, and there can hardly be a doubt on which team will run better between the wickets. Again, looking at the bowling line-ups of the two teams, one would be able to put their money on England to do a better job more often than not.
It is the batting where India will hope to ward off the English challenge and for that, they will need to have all their guns blazing.
Sachin Tendulkar had missed the T20I as expected and he should be back for this game, which could mean that Parthiv Patel will sit out; Ajinkya Rahane’s sizzling 60 ensures that he gets another go in the ODIs. The rest of the side should remain the same, unless the skipper wants to go in for an extra bowler – Ravindra Jadeja, in that case may be India’s best bet to provide seven or eight overs of spin and a batting option than any other regular bowler in the side.
Dhoni is known to go in with his tried and tested formula of seven batsmen and four bowlers, although, that hasn’t quite worked so far. The format may have changed but the English batting will be strengthened by the return of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, both of whom have been prolific scorers. Time for a tactical change then, one would imagine.
The last time that India had played England, the game had ended in a tie; an exhilarating match at Bangalore in the World Cup where the fortunes had fluctuated like the oil prices in the last two years or so till before the two teams decided on going home with honours shared.
Incidentally, India will be without seven of those who had played in that game; only centurion Tendulkar, Dhoni, Kohli and Munaf expected to play again.
And just as a side-note, Tendulkar is still stuck on 99 international centuries; the big 100th century remains elusive. Can Chester-le-Street be the one?
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