Preview: It could be a toss-up between Ashwin and Chawla

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

The last time England played an ODI series against India, they were blanked out. They went down 0-5 before the unfortunate terror attacks in Mumbai had called for a premature end to the seven-match series. In earlier series, they won one game and lost five.

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

Bangalore: Feb 26, 2011

 

The last time England played an ODI series against India, they were blanked out. They went down 0-5 before the unfortunate terror attacks in Mumbai had called for a premature end to the seven-match series. In earlier series, they won one game and lost five.

 

Not that history counts for too much, but it is an indicator to the fact that England, in the recent past, have struggled to adapt to the conditions in India, much like they would earlier.

 

The evidence of it could be seen in the Netherlands game when a side reasonably proficient in the fielding department, lost the plot. Overthrows and dropped catches became the name of the game. Captain Andrew Strauss threw his proverbial arms in the air by forgetting to set his fields – twice.

 

Fortunately, the English batsmen rose well to the occasion and knocked off what once looked like a stiff total. Against India, they need a much-improved show. And then they must hope that someone puts his hand up and bats or bowls like a champion.

 

The pitch will confound most. The third edition of the IPL had thrown up M Chinnaswamy as one of the bounciest tracks in the country. Vinay Kumar had had a ball. So did the rest of the Royal Challengers-bowling. The warm-up game between India and Australia exhibited a complete contrast.

 

There were complains that the track was underprepared. Probably, it reflected the vision of the man heading the association owning the ground, Anil Kumble. Either way, England will look to bounce India. They should look to. Bangladesh did that, although without too much success. They had lacked pace. So did the pitch.

 

It was interesting to see that Virender Sehwag delivered what he had promised by batting through most of the overs. In doing so, he had ducked under every bouncer hurled at him, realising for the first time that an ODI bowler can only bowl one of those each over.

 

Stuart Broad overdid the short-stuff against Netherlands but rest assured, he will repeat the dose at Sehwag. Get him to fend off his bruised ribs.

 

It was a surprise to see England drop Michael Yardy for the Netherlands game. It will be a surprise if they pick him for this one. Unless the pitch cracks from the word go, Graeme Swann will have to make-do with being the only spinner for this one.

 

Difficult, also, to see the rest of the side change. There will be a question mark over James Anderson’s bowling form. He has conceded 6.2 runs every over in the last five games that he has bowled in. That is a remarkable number considering that he has bowled his full quota of 10 overs in all those games.

 

Speaking of costly bowling spells, Sehwag’s assessment though blunt, was spot-on. Everyone except Shantakumaran Sreesanth had done well in the first game. And this, coupled with England’s obvious frailties against spin, should be enough for him to be replaced.

 

The bigger question for India is who between Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla will be called up. Harbhajan Singh gets the ball to come in to the right-hander and so logic demands that the leg-spinning Chawla, after a couple of good warm-up games, deserves a call-up.

 

But the flip to that is that India may want to start off with spin against Kevin Pietersen. In that case, Ashwin will be Dhoni’s preferred choice.

 

Other than that, fitness of three of India’s batsmen could have been a concern. Sachin Tendulkar’s MRI scans had the country awaiting the results with bated breath. Yuvraj Singh was hit in the nets but is said to be fit enough to bowl his pie-chuckers at Pietersen and co.

 

And then there was Sehwag who probably made the day of the net-bowler who bounced and hit him on his ribs. For now, all three should play the match.

 

Head to head in World Cup cricket gives another interesting statistic: England won in 1975 when Sunil Gavaskar played what remains one of the most horrendous innings in ODI history.

 

Then, in 1983, India entered the final by beating England. England returned favour at the same stage in 1987 before edging them out again in 1992 in the second game of the World Cup. In 1999, India ousted England from the tournament in the first round while crushing them in 2003.

 

One of the teams will go up 4-3 if the rain does not play spoilsport.

 

Teams

India (probable): Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, R Ashwin, Munaf Patel

 

England (probable): Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathon Trott, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Matt Prior, James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann.

 

Umpires: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) and Marais Erasmus (South Africa).

 

Time: 14.30 hours local (09.00 GMT)

(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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