India's batting will have
to come good

India will be hoping to take advantage of a depleted bowling attack of the opposition when they take on an increasingly assertive England in their first match of the NatWest triangular one-day series on Saturday.

Two of England's frontline bowlers -- Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough -- are unavailable for the series due to injuries and the inexperience in the bowling line-up is all too evident.

True, even with the limited options available, England were able to comfortably romp home against Sri Lanka in the opening day-night match on Thursday, the 44-run victory providing a major boost to the home team, which had suffered losses to county sides in their practice games.

But England had the cushion of a huge total their batsmen had put up, and the bowlers were never really stretched.

It is because of this that the performance of the main Indian batsmen would be very crucial.

Coach John Wright talked about the Indians being capable of putting the opposition under pressure and his team must prove that capability tomorrow.

England are on a high after their 2-0 victory over Sri Lanka in the Test series and the 44-run triumph yesterday and the Indians will really have to fire on all cylinders to halt their winning run.

With the Indian bowling line-up also not all that formidable -- left-arm seamers Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra have never played against England -- it will essentially boil down to a battle of the batsmen.

Most of the Indian batsmen, including skipper Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, have helped themselves to some runs in the three practice games but their unpredictability remains a problem.

Ganguly has fond memories of Lord's, where he scored a classic century on his Test debut in 1996. He seems to have carried his fine form to England from the West Indies tour as was evident from the two attacking knocks he played against the county sides in practice matches.

Tendulkar also had a match-winning knock in one of those games and so did Virender Sehwag, who will continue to open the innings with the skipper. Tendulkar has already said that he would once again bat in the middle order in this series to lend more stability to the batting line-up.

While conditions favour V V S Laxman, the stylish Hyderabad batsman's place is uncertain in the final eleven, as the Indians might be tempted to include the young brigade of Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif in its entirety because of the huge difference they make in the quality of fielding.

England showed in the match against Sri Lanka how much difference a good fielding performance can make and India must take lessons from that. The fact that Mongia, Kaif and Yuvraj Singh have also been getting runs heavily tilts the balance in their favour.

In the absence of Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar will suddenly find himself spearheading the Indian pace attack as both Nehra and Zaheer Khan are new to this land. Both the left-arm seamers are almost certainties for tomorrow's game as the conditions are likely to suit their style of bowling.

But that would once again mean that only one among Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh can play. It will be a pity since both are match-winning bowlers and former England captain David Gower believes the combination can pose maximum problems to the English batsmen.

Kumble and Harbhajan, in tandem, will be a potent threat, said Gower, as he watched the Indians play in the practice game at Leicester on Wednesday.

However, it will be too much to expect the England batsmen to dance to the tune of the Indians. The English team has been on a winning spree in recent times and the confidence level is sky high.

Batsmen like Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight, Michael Vaughan, skipper Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe have been consistently scoring runs

Veteran wicketkeeper Alec Stewart made a resounding comeback to the national squad with a solid 83 against Sri Lanka yesterday and he would definitely like to continue the good showing in order to retain his place in the side.

Andrew Flintoff is another concern for the Indians. The burly all-rounder had shown his big-hitting capabilities on the tour of India earlier this year and he played a magnificent knock yesterday.

Bowling can be a slight worry for England, with only Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard, apart from left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, as the experienced campaigners in their ranks.

The toss would be vital because both the sides would like to bat first, put up a big score and put the opposition under pressure.

Teams (from):

India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajay Ratra, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Tinu Yohannan.

England: Nasser Hussain (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight, Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Ronnie Irani, James Kirtley, Jeremy Snape, Matthew Hoggard, Ashley Giles, Alex Tudor, Michael Vaughan, Paul Collingwood.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor and Neil Mallender.

Match-referee: Mike Procter.

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