With fire in his belly, Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli will look to hammer the final nail in the coffin when his boys play England in the fourth Test in Mumbai on Thursday.
The iconic Wankhede Stadium has hosted seven Tests between India and England, out of which the hosts won three, lost three, while one Test ended in a draw.
Leading the five-match Test series by 2-0, vigorous India will eye pushing their victory juggernaut in Mumbai.
Despite coming through a series of injuries, the Indian side have managed to put a comprehensive performance whenever they entered the crease. Struggling with his stiff legs, Indian pacer Mohammed Shami is likely to join the list of injured players that already contains Wriddhiman Saha, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya.
With all-rounders like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav coming up to take responsibility in needed hours, the men-in-blue may suppress their grieves under the bliss.
The all-round trio of Ashwin, Jadeja and Yadav were the key protagonists in India’s easy eight-wicket win at Mohali. Man of The Match Jadeja led the pack with scoring career-best 90 runs and claiming four wickets, while Ashwin and Yadav scored 72 runs and 55 runs respectively, besides claiming four wickets each.
India’s opening pair, pacers’ performance and struggle at middle-order remain biggest woes for India. However, Kohli’s team management skills are coping well with these shortcomings.
Karun Nair, who failed to impress on his Test debut after losing his wicket for 4 runs at Mohali, also got a word of sympathy from the skipper. “Felt bad for Karun the debutant but he is a good batsman. I am sure he is looking forward to his next Test,” Kohli said in the post-match conference, indicating Nair’s possible inclusion in the fourth Test eleven.
At the moment, Murali Vijay is going through the toughest time of his career as the right-hander has managed to score just 192 runs so far in three matches. Vijay appeared struggling in India’s previous series against New Zealand as well, where he made only 186 runs in three matches.
On the other hand, England captain Alastair Cook seems like having a roller-coaster ride along with all his troopers. England’s only consistent batsman Haseeb Hameed, who scored 219 runs in three Tests has now been sent back to his home due to injury.
With the surprise inclusion of South Africa-born cricketer Keaton Jennings, captain Cook is expected to open England’s innings with his record 12th opening partner since the retirement of Andrew Strauss, whom he partnered initially.
Another surprise inclusion, orthodox spinner Liam Dawson may make his Test debut at Wankhede, complementing leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who has bowled consistently well, claiming 18 wickets from three Tests.
In the wounded England side, Ben Stokes has come up with best of his all-round skills that gifted him a five-wicket haul in the third Test, when other English bowlers were struggling for a breakthrough. So far so good, Stokes scored 267 runs from three matches and took seven wickets with his medium-fast bowling.
Former England captain Paul Collingwood also put his bet on Stokes, saying England must let the 25-year-old loose if they want to save a Test against India at this stage.
“I can sit here and pretend he’d listen to us but why bother. That’s the beauty of him – he wants to be in the important points of the game and wants to play a big part in winning the game,” Collingwood said as quoted by Mirror.co.uk.
“He’s almost impossible to captain when you’re out in the middle. You can try and give him the bigger picture and all that kind of stuff but he wants to be part of everything and he’ll continue to be like that,” he added.
Probable XI
India: Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel (WK), Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
England: Alastair Cook (C), Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Jos Buttler, Keaton Jennings, Liam Dawson, James Anderson, Chris Woakes