Related Link : India’s tour of England
The sixth ODI at The Brit Oval will decide the fate of India in the NatWest Series. For England, they can wrap the series with a win but the problem they have isn’t a new one. Hit with injuries, England finds itself at being content of fielding not its best line-up. Andrew Flintoff is spending more time in getting his troublesome ankle inspected by a Specialist which virtually rules him out of the equation.
Ravi Bopara has been declared unfit for not just the remaining two matches in London but also for the Twenty20 Championship. Bopara had unfortunately fractured his thumb when he had put his hand out to take a return catch off a Gautam Gambhir drive in the fifth match. Bopara did bat for England after taking a pain killing injection to try and help Collingwood in a difficult run chase. England are also without Chris Tremlett for today’s game with the fast bowler having a problem with his ankle.
Two fresh players are expected to make the line-up today which includes left arm swing bowler Ryan Sidebottom who returns after a side strain recovery along with an uncapped player. There could be a surprise in store for India if England give Debut for Sussex youngster Luke Wright. The Indians already had a tasted of this young and aggressive lad when he took their bowlers to the cleaners with a 40-ball 56 at Nottingham for England Lions.
The entire focus suddenly seems to be on the Twenty20 Championship that is just a few days away. India’s big three – Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly are not part of the Twenty20 and so their entire focus will be on these last two ODIs. And from the Indian point of view, it once again needs the batsmen to fire on all cylinders. The Oval wicket has mostly been a batsman’s paradise. There is extra bounce on the track but the wicket remains true in pace and bounce. All the more important that the batsmen get cracking as the margin of error for the bowlers is going to be very little with the outfield being blazing fast.
India will be better off to drop Dinesh Karthik and bring on Robin Uthappa, an attackingly dangerous batsman who has been unlucky not to get a game in this series. Uthappa had been breathtaking in his innings against England Lions and Scotland. Just the one change and India could stick with the formula of seven batsmen and four bowlers theory. With such a batting cushion available, the likes of Tendulkar and Ganguly will need to take some more liberty against the English new ball attack. India has been over dependent on its batsmen to win matches for them and that might be the case on a sunny day at The Oval.