All to play for as England seek salvation, India glory

About two months ago, a buoyant English sided landed in India with high expectations. In the subsequent weeks, they lost the Test series - conceding a World Championship final berth to the hosts – and the T20I series, a format they have relished playing in the recent past, thanks to an abundance of specialists in their ranks.

By the time it was turn for the ODI series, England were staring at a tour whitewash. But the fact that they are world champions did not take long to surface.

In many ways, England lead the pack which does not consider a target of more than 300 daunting anymore. In the first ODI, they were well on their way to assert their belief once again before India applied their trusted methods to deny them the pleasure of going 1-0 for the third time on the sojourn.

But the England captain’s assurance that the one outcome was not going to force them to change their template which has helped them grow from a side that was ousted at the group stage to World Cup winners within a span of four years was not just talks.

The next fixture saw them crush India’s 336 with more than six overs and as many wickets in hands. They looked all set to make it look worse for India if not for a couple of complacent wickets at the end.

It has now come to a decider, like the T20I series. But for all the talk about England’s methods and their superiority – a result of their ability to clear grounds at will, it’s again going to be a start from the scratch for them.

Because India have conveniently forgotten how to lose a series. In the last few months, they have managed to come out of direr situations to stun the pundits and the oppositions. With a whitewash on offer, they will do all that they can to find a crack for England’s methods. Their spinners have not had a great run and that has been hurting them a little, and that is one aspect they would want to click for them in the last game.

India have been the better side on the tour, and it’s something that will play on England’s mind for sure. That the tourists failed to hold on to their leads on the previous two occasions is what makes the final affair in Pune more interesting.

No matter which way it goes, fans can be sure of one thing – it’s going to be a fitting end to a well-fought and equally contested tour.

India likely XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

England likely XI: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Dawid Malan, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley