For any Indian who watches India-England games, the first thing that comes to a person’s mind when an India –England clash is announced is Sourav Ganguly waving his shirt in the Lords balcony in celebration of winning NatWest 2002.Well over the years both England and India have gone through several changes. Both the teams are on an all time high. England has just recently won the ashes down under and India also has the best battling line up that it has ever produced. Could we ever imagine that our batting line up would be so strong that players like Suresh Raina would have to sit on the bench. Well you can definitely say India has major home advantage. In the last 13 clashes that England has played against India in India they have managed to win only one game.
India:
On their clash against Bangladesh India showed how they can demolish any bowling attack. Virender Sehwag as said kept his word and batted an entire fifty overs and made 175.Virat Kohli was also at his lethal best as he thrashed the bangladehi bowling. Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar also looked in top form. As India put up a mammoth total of 370 runs without the batting display on Yusuf Pathan, Dhoni and yuvi. Well the batting combination for India will remain the same and no changes are expected in the side. The bowling of India was definitely not up to the mark. Sreesanth was smashed all over the park by the Bangladeshis. He is definitely going to sit out in todays game. It is most likely that India will be playing two spinners against England as Englands batsmen face difficulty is playing spin. Harbhajhan will definitely be the first choice and the second spinner should mostly be Chawla. India will be playing to two seamers.It should be Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel. Although Ashish Nehra is totally fit it is more likely that Munaf will be playing because he has performed extremely well in the last game he took 4 wickets giving away only 48 runs.Well overall India look like a very strong side.
England:
Englands campaign got off to a very apathetic start.With the Dutch running them a lot closer than anyone expected. The English batting saved the day as Andrew strauss got his team home. But facing Zaheer Khan will involve getting much more application into their game.Englands entire post-Ashes form, in fact, has been of some concern with the heavy 6-1 loss to Australia preceding their World Cup.However England has been a very consistent team with the victory of the T20 world cup and the Ashes we cannot write them off. England’s playing eleven will be of much interest. With conditions pointing to the inclusion of an extra spinner to partner Graeme Swann, England may opt to go in with Michael Yardy over Ravi Bopara. Bopara is the better batsman of the two, but Yardy provides the slow-bowling option that the team could be looking for. The batting has a new look with Pietersen opening, but his elevation was not a success against Netherlands, and England will need a big score from him upfront in this crucial match.
India definitely go in as favorites but as Pakistan showed against Sri Lanka, even the home advantage and the strength on paper are far from guarantees when two strong sides meet.
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