Can England snap India's winning march? (Preview)

Give Indian side turning tracks, it virtually becomes unassailable. After a disastrous tour to England that saw them lose all international fixtures, MS Dhoni’ s men are back to the winning ways. And, they have exhibited some style on their way to ascendency over England.

Three matches into five game series, the hosts have wrapped up the deal 3-0 already. It has outclassed touring England side that is struggling for ideas and execution on the cricket field. India have dominated England to make them taste their own medicines and are looking a different team that was so very out of sorts on England tour.

The method of domination from India is totally different from England. In their home conditions, England relied on their pacers to overpower India. India, on spinning and low bounce tracks, are making use of their spinners and power packed batting lineup to make England look an ordinary ODI outfit.

For England, their pacers have struggled to contain and dismiss Indian batsmen cheaply. Change in conditions has made England bowling lineup handicapped. With series lost, the team management would be ready for trying different combination. Surrey fast bowler Stuart Meaker should be favourite to debut tomorrow and young leg spinner Scott Borthwick might also come into reckoning.

England haven’t fielded all that well on this tour. Catches have been dropped and misfields have been a regular occurrence in the outfield. Wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter has dropped catches and missed run-out to make things difficult for already struggling bowlers.

Batting hasn’t performed either. Barring a decent show in Mohali last game where they scored nearly 300, English batsmen haven’t mastered Indian pitches thus far. Kevin Pietersen returning to the form is a welcome sign though. The star batsman though needs to play a long innings if his side harbours any chances to push India. Samit Patel, the batsman, has been a success but his left arm spin option has left lot be desired.

The venue for the fourth ODI-Wankhede, Mumbai- is known for its spin friendly tracks. And, that isn’t good news for England who are in pursuit of opening their account on the tour against India.

Not only would England dearly want to avoid whitewash, the tourists would be keen to blood in some players in the playing eleven.

Everything seems to fall in place for the hosts. So much so, their inexperienced pace trio has performed admirably well. As expected, their spinners have made life difficult for opposition batters. Batting department, in these conditions, has flourished with skipper Dhoni leading the way. Barring opener Parthiv Patel, all batsmen have had a solid contribution towards winning cause.

For India, brief is simple. Keep the passion and hunger going and not let England off the hook. The team management wouldn’t want to tinker much with the winning combination. But fast bowler Umesh Yadav’s injury that ruled him out of remainder of the series has given a rookie pacer Varun Aaron hope to make ODI debut.

Going by the form of both the teams and spin assisting pitch of Wankhede, India should be confident to make it 4-0. But million dollar question is: Can England snap India’s winning march?

India Squad: MS Dhoni (Capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkye Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.

England Squad: Alastair Cook (Capt), Jonathan Bairstow, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Scott Borthwick, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Stuart Meaker, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.