Fresh from their one-day cricket series triumph over the South Africans in Ireland,
India will launch their gruelling tour of England with a four-day warm-up
game against County champions Sussex here tomorrow.
The two teams, however, will keep one eye on the quirky weather as it has been
raining regularly here for the last few days.
With hardly any cricket played for about a week since their
series win against South Africa, the Indians will be looking forward
to field their best combination in the two warm-up games leading up to the first
Test at the Lord's on July 19.
Accordingly, Test regulars Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and
Wasim Jaffer are almost certain to make the cut for the final eleven.
Among the batsmen, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar,
Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Kaarthick will try to get rid of the
rust and be in top shape ahead of the Test series.
The Indian top order did well to get some runs under the belt
against a decent South African attack in the Future Cup series and would be
keen on continuing with that impressive form.
In bowling department, S. Sreesanth has fully recovered from
a bout of flu, that ruled him out of the one-day series in Ireland, and he will
be sharing the new ball with Zaheer Khan. Captain Rahul Dravid will also be
interested to see new pace inclusion Ranadeb Bose perform in a match situation.
With the presence of Pakistan players Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain
Mushtaq and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan in the rival ranks, the Indians can certainly
expect a bit more spice added to the contest.
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