Are Sehwag and/or Zaheer going to be fit?

Yes, they should be.

Will they last the whole match? - No

Sharma has been one of your best bowlers........

If anyone should be dropped from the quickies, should be sree..... way to expensive.... pick up wickets at vital times, but at what rate??!!

"Sharma has been one of your best bowlers........

If anyone should be dropped from the quickies, should be sree..... way to expensive.... pick up wickets at vital times, but at what rate??!! "

Have to disagree with you. Sharma has been dissappointing. He bowled well in 2nd innings of the first test, but otherwise has been too wayward.

Hasnt PK been your best bowler?

Surely Kumar will play, when he and Zaheer opened at Lords the looked good together. Sreesanth does have the advantage of playing a season at Edgbaston for Warwickshire though.
Is it only Yuvrag to provide spin in your line up?

"Hasnt PK been your best bowler?"

Yes he has, but he relies more on the batsman making a mistake rather than getting him out. In other words, he lacks pace. Tough call tho.

"Is it only Yuvrag to provide spin in your line up?"

There is only one other genuine spinner in the squad; Amit Mishra, who is a leg spin bowler, but he is way too inconsistent. He offers a rank half tracker once every over.

Have to disagree with you. Sharma has been dissappointing. He bowled well in 2nd innings of the first test, but otherwise has been too wayward.
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abit harsh that, considering he was bowling his guts off in the west indies aswel, so hes basically played 4 back to back tests and has two more to come in a matter of weeks....... Think the problems with india relate to batting more than bowling.... so the addition of gambir and sehwag will be a boost....... but i cant see you boys winning in birmingham - under way too much pressure now..... sehwags first game back, dont expect miracles from someone thats had a long lay off.... .....Best chance you got is on the oval wicket, alot more suited to it....

The way Sehwag plays you hardly need a warm up game, it's a case of crash bang wallop which require little practice.
I hope Strauss has a fielder at third man to deal with his carves over the top of the slips.

"abit harsh that, considering he was bowling his guts off in the west indies aswel, so hes basically played 4 back to back tests and has two more to come in a matter of weeks....... Think the problems with india relate to batting more than bowling"

Yes, it is a tough call to drop Ishant and Parveen, but it is required.

As far as Sehwag is concerned, he doesn't do much in warm up matches or FC games. He saves his best for test matches. A prime exapme of this is India's last tour of Australia. Sehwag wasn't in the orginal squad, he was out of form, he wasn't getting any runs for Delhi, yet he was selected for the 3rd and 4th test (dispite a huge outcry) and he saved the match for India with his Dravid like batting

I think the England bowlers will prefer to see him play like Dravid than himself. He can be so destructive against opening bowlers.

Lets hope Sehwag and Zaheer are fit and raring to play. You fans deserve that much, and this series is not won yet, and therefore the world number one position is still up for grabs. Good luck in the next match to all you Indian fans and see you on here when it starts.

"Lets hope Sehwag and Zaheer are fit and raring to play. You fans deserve that much, and this series is not won yet, and therefore the world number one position is still up for grabs. Good luck in the next match to all you Indian fans and see you on here when it starts"

Thank you.

England have played some amazing cricket in the series thus far. I can't really them getting beaten at home for a few years to come. Exciting times ahead.

I agree Maksi, I too fear a backlash, especially if England have to go with a changed team because of Trott's injury.

If there is to be a backlash hopeforthebest, then India need the above mentioned players to come back into the team and to be in some kind of form. If Trott is injured, what would be the plan? Surely not moving Bell back to that position? even though he scored a huge score last time out. If he bats at 3 then who would bat in his position? The name "Bopara" popped up on the BBC yesterday. That man would give India a chance of winning. He is useless?

Bopara's problem is you have no idea what to expect, it's this unreliability which bothers me.
Bell will certainly bat at 3 in the event Trott can't play. It's bell's home ground where he always bats at 3 with Trott at 4 for Warwickshire.
James Tayor made 76 today capaining the Lions, he must surely be in the running but is's a big occasion for debut.

76. That will do nicely for me hope. I know little about James Taylor other than that many good posters on here rate him highly. I think it would be great to throw him in and see how he gets on. Our selectors are superb, and if they pick him then he is ready. If not then they will find the right man for the job How injured is trott? He has over a week to get better.

Shoulder injuries are said to be some of the worst as they can become frozen if immobilised for a period. However he did seem to have movement in his shoulder when batting.

P Kumar has bagged the most wickets for India in the first two tests - 13 wickets at 26 a piece. He looked fit and showed willingness to bowl long spells. You want to drop your most successful workhorse?

Just remember what happened to the last team who decided they didn't need a spin bowler when playing in England.

Reckon England should bring in Taylor if Trott is unfit, but also that they should replace Swann with Patel and Anderson with Woakes giving an England line-up of:
Cook
Strauss
Trott/Taylor
KP
Bell
Morgan
Prior
Patel
Bresnan
Broad
Woakes

Bat India out of the game

Are you kidding now Hoggy? I don't know too much about Woakes or Patel

Woakes scored 60 today at Liverpool on a difficult wicket, Patel scored 52 for the Lions today.
However I wouldn't like to see wholesale changes along Hoggy's lines.

"comment by Maksi (U2561) posted 12 minutes ago

Are you kidding now Hoggy? I don't know too much about Woakes or Patel"

Yeah, my tongue's firmly in my cheek.
Reckon my line-up'd still hammer India though