Lions await India on placid pitch

FE Team | Published: July 13, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

If the Indians happen to glance at the scorecard of the recently concluded Essex-Nottinghamshire fixture, they might think that the M20 was redirected through the centre of the County Ground in Chelmsford. The pitch used for the encounter might just have been tarred, with both teams amassing in excess of 700 in a rather pointless exercise, reports Cricinfo.
A board inside the club premises shows that the Australian tourists of 1948 rattled up a monumental 723 against Essex, though that was at Southend-on-Sea. It got to such a point that Keith Miller decided to gift his wicket at the lack of a challenge. The Indians have a challenge in front of them all right, taking on England A, a side filled with fringe players staking their claim.
Rahul Dravid is the sort who loves to bat till eternity, and would no doubt relish a good batting surface, but it was decided to give him a rest as a precautionary measure. He had suffered a calf strain on the first day of the Sussex tour game and required a runner in the second innings. Though he has recovered, it was decided to wrap him in cotton-wool for the first Test at Lord's, starting in a week's time.
Sachin Tendulkar, who's captained India in 25 Tests and 73 ODIs but never on English soil, will lead in Dravid's absence. It was also decided that Gautam Gambhir, who cracked a solid 81 in the first innings at Hove, Anil Kumble and RP Singh, the left-arm seamer, would sit out of this game. That leaves a squad of 12 and one can expect Ishant Sharma to beat Ranadeb Bose for the final slot.
Neither of them might enjoy this surface though, with the sight of the groundsman shaving off the grass coming as an ominous sign.
Irrespective of the nature of the pitch, Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan and Ramesh Powar should get a game. They were rested at Hove but this is where they need to apply the finishing touches before the Lord's Test. The first three are certainties. The fourth, Powar, isn't, but a good showing here would get the team management thinking.
They'll be up against an attack that includes two beanpoles -- Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett -- one lively medium-pacer, Graham Onions, and one talented young legspinner, Adil Rashid. Captaining them will be Andrew Strauss, trying to get into form before the first Test after enduring a barren run since the start of last year's Ashes. The Indians will also be wary of Owais Shah, the talented middle-order batsman who made a fine fifty on debut at Mumbai last year, and Jonathan Trott, the South African-raised batsman who recently made his one-day debut.
Indians (probable): 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Dinesh Karthik, 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Ramesh Powar, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Sreesanth, 11 Ishant Sharma
England A (probable): 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Joe Denly, 3 Ravinder Bopara, 4 Owais Shah, 5 Jonathan Trott, 6 Tim Bresnan, 7 Tim Ambrose (wk), 8 Chris Tremlett, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graham Onions, 11 Adil Rashid.