Southampton, July 26:
They have snatched the momentum with a brilliant show on the dreaded Lord’s green-top and India’s in-form cricketers would now aim to take an unassailable series lead against a demoralised England in the third cricket Test starting here tomorrow.
The visitors won the second Test at Lord’s by 95 runs on a green-top wicket after the first Test at Nottingham was drawn. The stage is now set for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men to overwhelm the hosts, who are in turmoil.
The victory at Lord’s marked an end to the 15-match long drought without an overseas Test win. It stretched as far back as 2011, when India had beaten West Indies at Kingston.
That was also the last time that the Dhoni-led side took a 1-0 series lead. In that light, this is uncharted territory for a young team.
Back then, India won the Test series in the Caribbean by the slimmest of margins, drawing the next two Tests at Barbados and Dominica.
This is purely a statistical memory because Dhoni makes it a point to segregate the present from the past. But there can be some learning from history and it is for that purpose they had recruited former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid as mentor ahead of this Test series.
The legendary batsman was part of the Indian side that last played a five-Test series, back in 2002, coincidentally too against the West Indies.
India, under Sourav Ganguly back then, had taken the lead at Trinidad, squandered it away at Barbados in the third Test, and then lost the series at Kingston in the fifth Test eventually.
At this juncture it can be hoped that he also impressed upon this young team how to wade through untested waters.
Unlike that tour, this series doesn’t have a tour game in between any of the Tests. A long drawn-out encounter can be a gruelling affair especially if it is packed in 40-odd days. India need to watch out against two factors — complacency and bowlers’ workload — and that the two are indirectly related.
A return to the four-bowlers theory inadvertently means more physical exertion for the medium-pacers because whenever India will feel the pressure, one of them will be called into service.
The pitch at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl ranks somewhere in between the ones at Trent Bridge and Lord’s – green to start with and expected to dry out over the five days.
Squads:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishwar Pandey, Pankaj Singh, Varun Aaron, Wriddhiman Saha.
England: Alastair Cook (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Robson, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.
Match starts at: 3.30pm IST. (PTI)
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