On Thursday the test series between England and India rolls on North to Old Trafford with the series tied at 1-1 after a complete England performance and one of their very best in a long time saw them level the series after they went behind at Lord's with one of their worst performances of the last 12 months which really is saying something. However, they did look a lot better at the Ageas Bowl and that defeat from Lord's does seem to have kicked the team into action and it could well kick them along to a series win if all continues in Manchester after the senior players found form down in Southampton.
The only change that England have had to make is a squad change rather than a team one with the injured Liam Plunkett who missed the 3rd test leaving the squad to be replaced by Steven Finn who, if selected, will do well on a pitch that should have a lot of pace and bounce suiting his style very well and I think he deserves another go in the team. You'd have to say that would probably be at Chris Jordan's expense. Even though he went wicketless in the 3rd test match on debut, I'd like to see Pankaj Singh get another go as a tall bowler like him should also do well on this pitch. I also think someone of Ravi Ashwin's class deserves a pick if the pitch looks like it will turn. He'd probably play as a 2nd spinner at the expense of Rohit Sharma even though I'd say he's a better bowler than Ravi Jadeja.
It all makes for a very interesting test match and these are my thoughts on the 2 sides:
England
Captain Alastair Cook really got the ball rolling last week, leading from the front and seeming to find some of his form as he elected to bat first on day 1 at the Ageas Bowl and made 95, before an unbeaten half-century in the 2nd innings when England were looking to score quickly and set a target. That should give him plenty of confidence and hopefully he'll be able to finish the series well in the next 2 games with all the hard work he's put in. His opening partner Sam Robson could now do with a big score himself to cement his place in the team with a lot of other young openers knocking on the door. He's not really had a big score in this series and it seems a long time ago that he made that century at Headingley against Sri Lanka so the pressure will be on him again. After some poor scores and poor luck it was nice to see Ian Bell back amongst the runs with a big hundred and the middle order is in nice form with Jos Buttler having a good hit on debut while there was another hundred for Gary Balance and Joe Root has been making big scores this summer as well.
Bowling wise I was pleased to see Moeen Ali fulfil promise as a spinning all-rounder by taking 6 2nd innings wickets to win England the game at the Ageas Bowl and having proved himself as a decent spinner he'll be key again if it spins at Old Trafford which it surely will. James Anderson got another man of the match award at the Ageas Bowl for his first innings 5 wicket haul and another great spell on the final morning and having been cleared from allegations made by the Indian team about a run in with Jadeja, he'll want to perform well again on his home patch this week. I think that selectors will probably give Steve Finn a game rather than Chris Jordan who has some issues with his consistency that need sorting out while I was impressed with Chris Woakes despite his lack of wickets as he actually plugged away bowling a consistent line and length unlike the Indian bowlers when they were struggling for wickets.
Key Man: On his home ground, James Anderson the leading wicket taker in the series will want to continue his good work as one of the main and only men that has been getting any wickets for England in this series with Jimmy and Stuart Broad taking a lot of the strain in this series
India
India do have a few problems of their own to solve before this test match and most of them are bowling related. It looks like that if they play Ravi Ashwin that he'll replace Rohit Sharma taking India back down to 6 batsmen which might not be a great move although with a couple of all-rounders and Kumar going well down the order they shouldn't have too many problems. None of the Indian batsmen had a stand out time of it in the 3rd test and it's really about time that Dhawan for one and Virat Kohli for another started pulling their weight in the batting line-up as they're yet to make a decent score between them yet in this series and going down to 6 batsmen will put more pressure on them. Murali Vijay and Pujara have been scoring a great deal of the teams runs and Rahane is also in good form and the Indians will need this to continue now they only have 5 front line batsmen plus wicket-keeper Dhoni who has looked suspect with the bat despite scoring a couple of half-centuries
With the ball I hope they give Pankaj Singh another go as his style of bowling will be better suited to the Old Trafford pitch and at the end of the day a wicket-less debut doesn't reflect all of his potential does it? Kumar will be the pick of the bowlers that will start this test match as it looks as though Ishant Sharma is still injured and I've not been all that impressed with Mohammed Shami. Jadeja certainly isn't India's best spin option so I'd quite like to see Ashwin get a game here as the second spinner.
Key Man: Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is going to be a key man in this test match as the leading Indian wicket taker now that Ishant Sharma is still injured and he is the clear leader of a weak Indian bowling line-up so he needs to go well if they are to have any chance of taking 20 wickets and winning the test.
It will be another cracking test match if the poor Manchester weather can stay away because the winner will then be unable to lose the series while a draw would set up a brilliant shoot-out at the The Oval. As always the toss could be key to the match, but either way it will be 5 fascinating days of Cricket ahead for the fans.
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