Preview by Saurabh Somani - Cricbuzz
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London, Sep 6: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma... The Indian team almost seems to be sending a playing eleven back home, with hardly any men left standing to do national duty in England. It's been that sort of tour for India. When Dhoni said after the first Test that 'everything that could go wrong, went wrong', little did know just how much he had under-estimated fate's ability to continue twisting knives in wounds - almost literally so.
The result is that India will take the field with eleven men, but those eleven are not likely to resemble a balanced team. Here's a look:
India:
Manoj Tiwary, who was in good form in the Emerging Players tournament in Australia, will not reach in time for the match. Neither will S Badrinath, who was named Tendulkar's replacement late on 5th September. The status on Ravindra Jadeja is still not clear, and - for those who take an uncharitable view - whether Jadeja being available will help or hinder India isn't too clear either. Among pure batsmen, the ones left standing are Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina. Add Parthiv Patel and MS Dhoni as men who can bat, and that still makes for only six batsmen including the wicket-keeper. If Jadeja is available then he will get the seventh spot, but if he isn't, then India will go in with five pure bowlers.
They haven't even done that in Test matches for a while, but circumstances being what they are, they won't have much choice - in which case Amit Mishar, who batted so pluckily in the fourth Test - is likely to make the cut as the fifth bowler, since the emphasis will be on getting the bowler with the best batting ability into the eleven. That sums up India's tour like nothing else: a bowler will make the eleven based on his batting ability.
England:
While England don't have India's walking-wounded problem, they do have some socks to pull up before the second ODI. So far, the tour has been as close to perfect as possible for the hosts, but ODI captain Alastair Cook was surely in a minority when he stated that he believed England could have won the first ODI if rain hadn't intervened. The fact is, England were very clearly and firmly on the back-foot for the first time in an international match in this series, and would have been hard-pressed to achieve a win from the position they were in. Their bowlers - so effective in the Tests - were not quite as sharp in the first ODI, and allowed India to post a very challenging score.
In the brief time they were in the middle, the batsmen didn't impress too much either, with Cook himself getting out cheaply. Overall too, England's recent ODI record has been far less impressive than their Test record, and against a team that has already been battered on the field by them and off the field by injuries, it may be England's best chance to start correcting that.
Weather Update:
Significantly, the weather forecast for the Rose Bowl in Southampton is far from cheery. Heavy rain and wind are forecast, and there is a good chance the second ODI will go the way of the first.
Teams:
India (From): MS Dhoni(w/c), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Vinay Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary
England (From): Alastair Cook(c), Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Steven Finn, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Alex Hales, Samit Patel, Ben Stokes, Craig Kieswetter(w).
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