India England ODI 1 Preview: England Go All Out, India Seek Desperate Consolation

After a disappointing Test tour, India embark for some final consolation on the tour of England while England are going all out to annihilate India altogether.

Praveen Kumar, Ravi Bopara

For India, the ODI series represents the last opportunity to restore some pride and faith after what has been generally a one sided show thus far. Billed to the mother of all battles, the India England series has thus far been a damp squib with the Indian cricket team unable to stand up to expectations while England ran away with a Test series whitewash and the no.1 Test team title.

The ODI series though is not merely an exercise to bring the winning pattern to the Indian cricket team. Instead as the reigning ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 champions, the Indian cricket team will face another face saving exercise that they will need to pull off if they are to come away from the tour of England with something to their name. The rise in the ICC ODI rankings may be a boost but India will not be targeting that as much they will be targeting trying to win the series match by match, rather one match at a time.

It is not an easy proposition for India given that several of their top league cricketers such as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh are already tending to personal injuries and therefore, out of the series. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, may have problems of his own. However, he has much to do if India are to reduce the pain of the Test series defeat by converting the rest of the tour into a series win that will bring some solace to the team.

Duncan Fletcher, the Indian coach, has had to watch agonizingly from the sidelines and certainly he would feel that the team can do better in the shorter format. However, plans on paper alone will not work because as Dhoni rightly pointed out, the England tour has proved difficult not only by the loss of bowlers but also, because of the lack of batting partnerships that have consistently let India down. If India are to make a stronger showing, and this will involve several of the generation next, they will need to not only string partnerships together but also, ensure that one or two of their batsmen make it count heavily in each match.

England will see a third captain in Alastair Cook who is now the England ODI captain. But England will carry their momentum through the nucleus of their core players while adding more fresh legs. It should be an interesting contest for them because Andy Flower, the England coach has clearly identified the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 as their new goal which means England will work through to identify and groom those players that will give them their best chance of winning the World Cup in four years’ time. Although the time seems a fair distance, England are showing the measure of training hard, putting plans in place and executing them to perfection consistently in order to stay competitive and in contention.

For India, their goals seem rather immediate at the moment – get the first win on the tour under their belt. It has not been easy and there is not reason why it should get any easier. However, India will hope for an injury free ODI series where some of the youngsters will show more gumption than they have been given credit for. Even Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th 100 is not of such over riding importance (although Rahul Dravid will surely still have a role to play in his last ODI series ) as the Indian cricket team showing some fight and some success to account for it.