India may fall back on 7-bat plan

Roy Keane was back at his old club tonight, in-charge of the opposition camp, determined to do one better as manager than what he had achieved as part of the Red Devils.

Roy Keane was back at his old club tonight, in-charge of the opposition camp, determined to do one better as manager than what he had achieved as part of the Red Devils. Most of the Indian team members watched from the stands as Keane8217;s Sunderland took on Manchester United in the Premiership. One of them was Sachin Tendulkar, and his story too goes along similar lines.

Tendulkar has some unfinished business at Headingley 8212; his only county stint career was for Yorkshire, and it was nothing less than a disaster. His international career at this venue has been a mixed bag 8212; he got a 193 in his only Test match here in 2002, but his one-day record has been a total of 25 runs in two matches. And it would be a perfect time tomorrow for Tendulkar to get that ODI record straight. The pitch may give him support, but not without siding with the bowlers early on.

Team India is in dire need of a big score at the top of the order, and towards the middle if they intend to keep the seven-match rubber alive. Down 1-3 and staring down the barrel, Rahul Dravid is sweating even in the windy conditions prevalent here. He8217;s been practising hard, and praying harder, as Zaheer Khan, his ace bowler, spent most of his day with his strapped left ankle in the ice bucket.

For England, Andrew Flintoff has a similar problem. The all-rounder, who8217;s been in and out this summer, batted at the nets today but complained of a sore ankle and is reported to be in doubt for the fifth encounter.

Zaheer is crucial to Team India8217;s plans as they look set to try out yet another different combination8212; in terms of the final XI and their fifth different bowling combination in as many matches. After stopping short of enforcing it in the last match itself, Dravid is set to revert back to his seven batsmen formula with Gautam Gambhir back in the reckoning, even as Robin Uthappa remains a dark horse for the number three slot.

The bowling specialists will have an equal staff of spinners and seamers with Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla combining with Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar. Zaheer has been given time till morning to assess his fitness and in case he doesn8217;t make it, RP Singh will take his place.

And then, being in Sir Geoffrey Boycott8217;s backyard, the obsession for the Prince of Kolkata and Shilpa Shetty can8217;t be ignored. The leggy actress isn8217;t here; Sourav Ganguly too missed practice feeling a bit unwell today. But he will be ready to play his 300th ODI.

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India have won 18 of 22 one-day matches where Ganguly has scored centuries and going by the odds, the next big one may be just around the corner.

Talking about milestones and statistics, here8217;s another interesting bit. While Zaheer has been in top form even in one-dayers and has looked the best so far, India incidentally have won the only match that he didn8217;t play in 8212; at Bristol. Whether Zaheer plays or not, the bottomline remains the same 8212; India have to win here. And the next two as well.