Every cricket fan around the globe is wondering if Sachin Tendulkar can achieve an incredible milestone of 100 international tons in a historic 2000th test match. Infact it is 100th test match between India vs England as well.
Cricket fans are praying hard to keep the rain away from Lord's as the weather does look fickle in England and rain is predicted on all 5 days of the match which can play a spoilsport.
Virender Sehwag's injury will play a serious role in the development of young talented opener Abhinav Mukund who played some good innings in West Indies.
The practise game against Somerset, however showed how a strong batting line up can crumble against good seam bowling. Barring Suresh Raina, no other Indian batsman could do nothing to justify their reputation as a part of rock solid Indian batting line up.
Sachin Tendulkar has always been the force behing Indian batting line up and the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman will have to play a handy role along with Sachin if India want to set a good total.
Suresh Raina has shown in recent times why he is better than Yuvraj Singh at the longer version of the game. He has sorted his issue with the short balls but it will be interesting to see how he handles the dazzling short pitched ones of Giant Tremlett.
Indian bowling line up will heavily rely on Zaheer Khan. Luckily this time he has a decent partner in Ishant Sharma. Sharma looked very well in West Indies and scalped 22 wickets from just 3 games at 16.86 a piece. Harbhajan Singh is nomore a force he used to be 8-9 years ago. He has lost the confidence of tossing the bowl in the air which was his main weapon. Praveen Kumar might get a nod for the 4th bowler role ahead of Munaf Patel & Sreesanth.
England has an in-form batting line up of Ali Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott to open the batting for England. Cook has 5 and Trott has 3 centuries in England's last 8 test matches.
Kevin Pietersen's form will play a major role if England have to win the game. He is out of touch for a long time now and cant really wait to be back in the form he used to play for first few years of his career. Luckily Ian Bell and Matt Prior has done well in recent times so England can feel safe in their middle order / lower middle order as well.
Chris Tremlett and James Anderson are all set to trouble Indian top order with their short pitched ones. It will be a stern test of young blood like Abhinav Mukund against them. Graeme Swann is probably the best spinner playing at this level at the moment and Indian middle order is aware of his ability to turn the games around within a session. Tim Bresnan will probably play as the 4th bowler ahead of England's T20 captain Stuart Broad.
Lets just pray for the rain to stay away from the game so we can enjoy the cricket for full 5 days.
England ( Probable ) : Andrew Strauss ( c ), Ali Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior ( + ), Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Chris Tremlett, James Anderson
India ( Probable ) : Gautam Gambhir, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni ( c & + ), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma
Two equally strong and balanced teams will meet in a high voltage test series at the 'Mecca of cricket' Lord's today. The four test series between India and England is being touted as a fight between 2 best teams for the top position in test cricket. A series win by two game margin will ensure that England go on TOP position. Though their task will not be easy against the experienced Indian batting line up.
