20 Jul / 2011India in England(July-Aug 2011).Preview India

Since the beginning of Test Cricket, Day 3 always produced substantial runs for teams, during this period the game evolves into an interesting situation… India Preview Test Ranking. From 2009, in 24 Tests India have won 12, & lost just 3. India will remain at No.1, if they don’t lose the series,and… –        A draw will be a drop↓ in points( 1 pt), but not in ranking, they would still remain No 1. –        A loss would push them down to No. 2(neverthless 0-4 will push them to No.3), allowing England to become the No.1 Test side. Now, considering India is less aggressive in nature(adding  Sehwag’s absence in first 2 Tests), is it a possible that this permutation knowledge of Test ranking, would allow them to play less aggressively, and not take any initiative at the initial stage of series, and yet remain No. 1 Test playing nation ?. Option : In this series, India should look to bowling first Here are few reasons. 1- England batting first, has not yielded Strauss enough runs. His last 10 innings scores are  4.0.13.15.45.21.83.0.55.3 2- Since the beginning of Test cricket, Day 3 always produced substantial runs for teams (Not referring exceptional cases) as the game evolves into an interesting situation, where both teams are playing the waiting game and are trying to build advantage over their opponent. The condition (pitch/weather) is ideal for batting, hence it would be a great opportunity for India to bat as long as they can after fielding first, and not lose a game. A brief look at recently concluded series. Runs(%) scored on Day 3 in last two series.

Wkts(%) on Day 3 in last two series.

  3- Since 2009, India 1^st Inn Avg Score is 469 Runs while batting second in a Test match. In these 15 Test matches,  10 times India scored more than 400 Runs. List of 1^st Inn score (batting second) since 2009. 4- While bowling first Zaheer Khan has been very effective, and using the new ball on Day one Ishant Sharma has been lethal in last few games. Harbhjan Singh is not far behind, especially in 2nd Innings on Day four and five .