 The first Test match between India and England will be played at
Lord's from the July 21. This is the first of the series in which there will three
more games of the longer version and then, will be followed by one T20I and five
ODIs. This will mean that the usually slow-starting Indian side will have a good,
long time to adapt themselves to the conditions.
The Indians will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and will know that the
English side has vastly improved in the recent times. They have played good
cricket, overcoming Australia in the Ashes and then beat Sri Lanka 1-0 at home.
Clearly, this will be an English side to beat and will see the Indians needing
to take them seriously.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs India
The tour game had shown that the Indians were found woefully short of where they
needed to be, but then one can attribute that to the lack of practice as well
the decision to try out different things instead of trying to focus on the result.
The Indian batting, which will not be too different from the one on display in
the tour game will be tested.
India had collapsed to 224 all out in their first innings, with none of the
top-order batsmen scoring any runs. The highest score came from Suresh Raina,
who scored a century but amongst the rest, Sachin Tendulakr's 26 was the top-score.
What the Indians need is to adjust quickly to the pitch at Lord's because if they
take time getting used to the conditions, things could get very difficult for
them and that will mean that they will be hammered out of the game. The Indians,
given their number one position will not want that to happen.
On the other hand, barring Zaheer Khan, none of the other bowlers which
played in that game will play in the first Test match, which will make it interesting.
On the one hand they will welcome the break that they would have had going into
the game, but on the other, they will not have had enough practice in the English
conditions.
England will bank upon their top order consisting of the likes of Alastair
Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathon Trott, all of whom are in good form.
Where they need to show form will be their bowling, something that could be
put under pressure if James Anderson does not get going.
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