The scars of a drubbing in the Tests might linger but the redemptive spirit that sprung forth through victories over Sussex, Kent and Leicestershire might help India as the team gears up for the lone NatWest Twenty20 match against England at the Old Trafford here on Wednesday night.
Limited overs jousts with its compressed format can mask inadequacies and a single over can unhinge settled teams. India can take heart from that and in its young bunch that has had maximum exposure to Twenty20 thanks to the Indian Premier League. The relevant skill-sets are there and it is a matter of performing consistently, a facet that went missing in the Tests.
India also has the pressing need to rev up its form while donning coloured clothing despite the World Champion tag in the 50-over format. In the West Indies, India won the lone Twenty20 and then gained an imposing 3-0 lead in the ODIs before the Caribbeans pocketed the last two to marginally dent a young team led by Suresh Raina. The series also led to the downgrading of S. Badrinath, Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay while Rohit Sharma shone bright.
India's lame tread in cricket began with those two ODIs and though the Test series was won against the West Indies, timidity has stalked the squad in the current England tour before M.S. Dhoni's men found welcome victories in quaint county grounds watched by eager fans waving the Tri-colour and crunching into their samosas.
The spectre of injury that has plagued the team and forced the early departure of Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, is a clear and present danger.
Gambhir doubtful
Gautam Gambhir, who suffered a concussion while back-pedalling for a catch at the Oval, is unlikely to play the match and Rahul Dravid should be making his international Twenty20 debut! The other veteran Sachin Tendulkar was rested against Leicestershire and he will skip the latest contest too, according to Dhoni.
Parthiv Patel will open the innings probably with Ajinkya Rahane and the middle-order will bank on India's go-to man in this tour – Dravid – and on the trio of Raina, Kohli and Rohit Sharma with Dhoni being the floater.
On the bowling front, it is a matter of conjecture whether the Indian skipper will opt for a 3-1 pace-spin ratio or field both R. Ashwin and Amit Mishra. Vinay Kumar had impressed at Leicester with his variations in pace while Varun Aaron was a bundle of nerves and needed a constant pat from Raina and Praveen Kumar.
A Yuvraj in the ranks would have given Dhoni a few brownie points against his counterpart Stuart Broad. The six sixes that Yuvraj clattered in 2007 has been Broad's worst nightmare though England's Twenty20 skipper has moved ahead from that dreadful day.
In the Tests, the Indians were so caught up in survival that the breathless stroke and the thump over mid-wicket was largely absent and with Sehwag too failing, the English seamers could stick to their radar. England will rely on Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Craig Kieswetter to clear the in-field and a young trio of Ben Stokes, Alex Hales and Jos Butler is also part of the mix.
The pitch here has been re-positioned after the installation of flood lights and hopefully the sense of change in the air will also permeate into the Indian team that has found its fortunes take a belated swing upwards in the warm-up games.
The teams (from): India: M.S. Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Varun Aaron, Vinay Kumar, R.P. Singh, Amit Mishra, R. Ashwin and Gautam Gambhir.
England: Stuart Broad (captain), Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Ravi Bopara, Jos Butler, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Samit Patel and Graeme Swann.
Umpires: Rob Bailey and Richard Illingworth. Third umpire: Nigel Llong.
Match referee: Jeff Crowe.
Match starts at 10.30 p.m. (IST).
