RAJKOT (India), Jan 10: Their egos battered after the debacle against arch-foes Pakistan, India hardly have any time to reflect and plug the loopholes but an inexperienced England attack gives the hosts a slight edge in the five-match One-day International series starting here on Friday.
The 2-1 defeat against Pakistan had exposed chinks in the Indian batting armoury, forcing the selectors to omit off-colour opener Virender Sehwag and replace him with in-form local hero Cheteshwar Pujara in the squad to take on England in the first three games.
The consolation victory over Pakistan in a low-scoring thriller in the final game in bitterly cold conditions in New Delhi was a desperately-needed shot in the arm for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men ahead of the rubber against England, which earlier whipped the hosts 2-1 in the four-game Test series.
England will again be led by their victorious Test skipper Alastair Cook but their bowling attack, without the presence of several key Test bowlers, appears inexperienced and could be just the tonic needed by the bruised Indian batting line-up to get back into the groove.
Barring Dhoni, it was a collective batting failure by the Indian top-order in which Suresh Raina, with a modest tally of 92 with 43 as his best score, emerged as the second-best batsman.
But against the less-experienced England pace attack, led by Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn, the same set of batsmen ought to flourish, especially on what promises to be a batting-friendly playing surface.
The old ground in this city, the Madhavrao Scindia race course ground, was known for its placid tracks and in the last ODI game played here in 2008, the England pace attack was hit all over the park by Gambhir, Sehwag and Yuvraj.
The current new-ball attack comprising Bresnan, Finn, Stuart Meaker and Jade Dernbach does not appear as lethal as the one that was smashed to smithereens by the Indian batsmen four years ago.
According to a local official the track at the newly-built SCA Stadium will suit the batsmen and scores in excess of 300 are expected.
In batting, England will depend a lot on Cook, Ian Bell, who seems to have taken a liking at last to Indian tracks by scoring a ton and a 91 in the two warm-up games, Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan.
The noon start for the game would also negate the effect of dew fall later in the day to a large extent.
The series provides a chance for India to redeem their prestige, while England can cement their place on the top of one-day rankings by winning. India also have the chance to shoot to the top of the order again if they can make a 5-0 clean sweep like they did in 2008.
For England, like it was the case in the Test rubber, a series triumph would result in re-writing history after nearly three decades.
Teams (from):INDIA: Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Shami Ahmed, Rohit Sharma.
ENGLAND: Alastair Cook (captain), Ian Bell, Kevin Petersen, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Craig Kieswetter, Samit Patel, Joseph Buttler, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Stuart Meakar, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.
Umpires: S. Ravi (India) and Steve Davis (Australia).TV umpire: Vineet Kulkarni (India).Match referee: Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe). —Agencies