Winning formula for India

BIRMINGHAM: A dodgy, painful knee could prevent champion all-rounder Andrew Flintoff from playing in Monday’s game at Edgbaston, which is good news for India, but skipper Rahul Dravid knows that his side would have to do the front running still to win the match and get ahead in the series.

Flintoff, who took five wickets in the previous game at Bristol albeit most of them as the batsmen were out slogging in the death overs, remains England’s premier player despite missing the entire Test series, and some modest form in this season. On his return, he has bowled fast, and looked the most dangerous of the attack, troubling the batsmen on the seaming track at Southampton as well as the placid pitch at Nevil Road.

Flintoff missed out on the opportunity to be a hero with the bat when he fell for a measly 9 runs in the second match, holing out to deep mid-wicket off Ramesh Powar, but his prowess as a big-hitting batsman can hardly be doubted. His absence will hurt Paul Collingwood both in bowling and batting.

Dravid can hardly miss the import of Flintoff’s value to England, but his strategy should remain unchanged whether the all-rounder plays or not. At Bristol, he gambled with two spinners, sacrificed an extra batsman, and may have struck on the best combination for the remainder of the series.

Both Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar bowled craftily, the former in fact being the bowling hero in scalping Pietersen, Collingwood and Bell, England’s three best batsmen.

Chary of spinners being clobbered by such big-hitters, Dravid had played four seamers at Southampton, but will have now realised that slow bowling is his better bet for taking wickets, even it means giving away some runs.

Indeed, the pace attack, barring Munaf Patel, was pedestrian in the second game, and Dravid’s big decision will be whether to play Zaheer Khan in the third or give him some more time to recover from the flu which laid him low over the past few days.

RP Singh looked a trifle jaded at Bristol, his delivery angle no longer such a bother for the batsmen. But Agarkar was downright disappointing, lacking control in line and length.

With the fielding also below par, Dravid obviously hopes that his batsmen will deliver a match-winning score yet again. The top half looks in good nick, and now also has the right order, with the gifted Yuvraj at number 3 and the explosive Dhoni at 6.

Playing an extra bowler also increases the onus on the frontline batsmen, which may be just the psychological push they need.

The toss will be important, but not necessarily the decisive influence on the match. The Edgbaston ground, one learns, has been full of runs this season, which should translate into a 300-plus runs per innings match.

India, it might be remembered, had excelled in the previous game, but only just. Once considered insurmountable, 300-plus scores are no longer safe if the wicket plays true, and the boundaries are short and specially if the bowling and fielding are tardy.

One reckons though that the Indian tour management has been at serious work to address these issues.