 The second Test match between India and England will be played from
July 29. The game will be venued at Trent Bridge in Nottingham and the English
side goes into the game with a 1-0 lead in the series.
The English side won the first Test match of the series by 196 runs in a game
that saw the Indians never being in with a contention of winning it. The English
side were head and shoulders above the Indians and that showed in the field of
play. They seemed to have out-batted, out-bowled and even out-fielded the Indian
side.
Click for Live Score Card of England v India
Interestingly, the Indians lost the game on the first day itself, when they
lost Zaheer Khan to a hamstring injury. He did not bowl further in the game
after the hamstring strain and the Indians were left with only three bowlers.
Of the remaining three bowlers, the off-spin of Harbhajan Singh was rather
poor and he ended with bowling figures of 1 for 216 runs, which meant that the
side had effectively only two bowlers to rely on.
There is a good chance that the Indian team will now go into the second Test with
S Sreesanth in place of Zaheer Khan. Sreesanth adds pace to the bowling, given
that Praveen Kumar is a slow bowler and Ishant is the only guy who gets pace but
does notg et too much swing. Sreesanth will get both, pace and swing if it is
his day.
On the other hand, the batting will not be changed unless there is a fitness
issue. Both, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir had problems on the
fourth day but one would like to believe that the break of three days between
the games would be enough to solve their fitness woes. The opening batting will
be something to look out for and a poor start could lead to issues again.
What the English side will do is nothing different. They will need to ensure
that they can get going with the batting and the pressure will then be on the
Indian batting. This will mean that they will require at least one of their
top three batsmen; Alastair Cook, Jonathon Trott and Ian Bell
to get going. Kevin Pietersen's rise to form will be a huge welcome to the side.
The bowling should remain the same although there were a few question-marks over
the fitness of Chris Tremlett.
England will be favourites to win the game.
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