July 19, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 03, 1428

LONDON, July 18: England captain Michael Vaughan does not believe the memory of his most prolific home series, against India in 2002, will have any bearing when the teams open their three-Test series at Lord's on Thursday.

Vaughan scored three centuries in those four Tests five years ago, including his two highest scores of 197 at Nottingham and 195 at The Oval.

He then scored three more hundreds in England's following series, in Australia, when he topped the world batting rankings.

“In that year I did a lot of the basic stuff well,” Vaughan told reporters on Wednesday. “Once you do that you can elaborate and attack the bowlers more. That's my style exactly when I'm playing well.

“I thought I was doing that reasonably well earlier this summer (against West Indies) and it's what I hope to do this series, do the basics well and give myself the chance to get a good score.

“It is a similar kind of attack (to 2002) with left-armers and (Anil) Kumble, just missing Harbhajan (Singh) from that attack, but that was then and this is now and I'm going to have to start afresh.”

England's bowling attack will have a new look with Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett in the 13-man squad together with James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom.

With Matthew Hoggard having a scan on a back injury on Wednesday afternoon and rated ‘extremely doubtful’, the England attack – missing both Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff for the first time since October 2003 – could look very raw.

England have not lost a Test series at home since 2001 against Australia but India captain Rahul Dravid predicted ‘an even contest’ on Wednesday.

Dravid, on his third Test tour of England, is confident India can win their first series here since 1986 when Kapil Dev was captain.

“They're pretty evenly matches sides,” Dravid told reporters. “England have had a lot of success with the bat this summer against West Indies, we've got a pretty formidable batting line-up and both sets of attacks are inexperienced.

“So it should be a good, even contest and it's really a challenge for both sets of bowlers to be able to take 20 wickets in the series.”

The ‘formidable batting line-up’ Dravid referred to is so strong that Yuvraj Singh, who was recently their vice-captain, is expected to make way for V.V.S. Laxman to play.

Dravid predicted major things from Laxman, saying: “I feel he is going to be a big factor for us in this series.”

Zaheer Khan and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth are expected to open the bowling for India, backed by leg-spinner Kumble. Rudra Pratap Singh is likely to claim the final bowling place.

Dravid said he had no worries about Sachin Tendulkar leading into the Test series despite fears the batsman's form might be on the wane.

There has been a feeling in recent years that Tendulkar, Test cricket's leading century-maker with 37 in 137 matches, is no longer quite the force he once was against the world's leading sides.

Although he will be going for a third hundred in as many Tests, the previous two centuries were against minnows Bangladesh.

But Tendulkar, 34, warmed up for Lord's with 171 last weekend against England Lions, the national ‘A’ side.

“The standards he has set are so high that to expect him to maintain them all the time is not possible,” Dravid told reporters.

“But he's going to come back as long as he enjoys the game and he loves it and that's what I see. The way he works, the way he practises, the way he's gone about his business on this tour, tells me he's enjoying his cricket.

“He loves playing cricket. That's what you get to see with Sachin, the sheer joy you get of expressing your talent, playing with the best in the world in front of so many people.

“I don't think there should be any immediate concerns about Sachin or his form. He's in good enough form for us not to have any concerns at this stage,” Dravid added.

India haven't won a Test series in England since 1986 when they triumphed 2-0 in a three-match campaign.

Teams (from):

England: Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan (captain), Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Matt Prior (wk), Ryan Sidebottom, Matthew Hoggard, Monty Panesar, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett.

India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Saurav Ganguly, Vangipurappu Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni), Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Anil Kumble, Ramesh Powar.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Simon Taufel (Australia).

TV umpire: Ian Gould (England).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—Agencies