test

It’s time for cricket. After all that has transpired since the terror strikes in Mumbai, the game now takes centre stage. Weather permitting , one of the most significant Tests in recent memory is about to be played - with plenty at stake. India go into this match after beating the No. 1 side in the world. Their pace bowling is in the best health witnessed for decades, the openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have put together 50-plus stands in seven of their last eight innings, and in Mahendra Singh Dhoni India have a street-smart, innovative leader. Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra played a critical role in Australia’s two defeats, and with spin accounting for 62% of England’s wickets in India since 2001, they will aim to apply pressure.

Also on offer is a chance to move back to No.2 in the ICC’s Test rankings, a position India briefly enjoyed after the 2-0 home series victory against Australia. Even a 1-0 series win will suffice for India, currently at third.

By going in with five bowlers, England have stated their intent - they are here to win. A 2-0 series win would help them overtake Sri Lanka to the fourth slot in the standings. An in-form Owais Shah, who scored 236 runs in four ODIs, has been sacrificed for the offspinner Graeme Swann, who will make his debut. England’s pace attack was carted around during the ODIs but England’s bowling assumes a different threat, aided by field placing, in the traditional form of the game. This Test will present physical and procedural challenges for England’s attack and how it acclimatises to conditions against an in-form Indian batting line-up could be decisive. Bar the openers, the Test side is almost the same as the ODI side, which got in five games in local conditions; Kevin Pietersen scored a hundred. Matt Prior will take over the gloves for his first Test since December 2007.

Even though few are giving them a chance, there are key England players who have done well in India. Paul Collingwood seemed destined to be a bits-and-pieces player till his brilliant maiden Test century in Nagpur in 2006, in the middle of an injury crisis. In that same Test, Alastair Cook, 21 at the time, flew halfway round the world and was thrown straight in to open the batting. He made 60 in the first innings, a maiden Test century in the second and has never looked back. Andrew Flintoff, who had reservations returning to India, inspired his side to that series-levelling win in Mumbai, one in which James Anderson’s back-from-the-wilderness six wickets were crucial. And it was in India that a turbaned, softly spoken Bedfordshire spinner captured the imagination - and later gathered iconic status - with the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Kaif and Rahul Dravid on debut.

All the top-level security, the scathing and praising columns, the excessive television coverage, will have to take a back seat when the 22 players step onto the field. England’s decision to resume the tour has been widely applauded, turning this into a Test that will throw up no loser.

Team news

Gambhir returns after a one-Test ban to accompany a red-hot Sehwag at the top, displacing M Vijay. Yuvraj will slip into Ganguly’s spot in the middle order. Apart from that India’s team will be the same from the one that beat Australia by 172 runs in Nagpur exactly a month ago.

India : (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Amit Mishra.

Perhaps refreshingly, and in an odd throwback to the early 90s, England are not weighed down by expectation given all that has happened recently. But the opportunities given to Swann and Prior are massive. Swann played a key role in England’s one-day series win in Sri Lanka last year, taking seven wickets in four matches, but failed to cement his place since. The horrors of Sri Lanka behind him, the new, grown-up Prior - who finished with 931 runs at 51.72 in the County Championship - has achieved his goal of making the Test side again. He will replace Tim Ambrose, for whom runs dried up this summer.

England: 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen (capt), Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 James Anderson, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar

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