England wins toss, bats in 3rd test vs

I know England do it, all teams do it, chucking the ball against an abrasive outfield to try to get it to reverse swing’. “Although we have five bowlers, still the effort and the way they responded and went about being very relentless in their pursuit to go out there and win was very evident and I am really pleased with the way we were able to win the Test match in Vizag”, he added.

England captain Alastair Cook has backed Jos Buttler to produce something special when he makes his Test return here tomorrow. The spinners were going at four an over in Bangladesh on spinning wickets. This gives India the clear edge over England, who also have decent spinners in Adil Rashid, Zafar Ansari, Moeen Ali and could hand veteran Gareth Batty a chance. The spin trio of Ashwin, Jadeja and debutant Jayant Yadav didn’t have the luxury of an overtly spin-friendly track and had to fight for every wicket. He will replace Stuart Broad, who strained a tendon in his right foot in Visakhapatnam.

The skipper emphasised his side had played some good cricket in Rajkot and Vizag and head into Saturday’s encounter in good spirits.

Coming into the third Test, India have made a forced change in the form of Parthiv Patel coming in for the injured Wriddhiman Saha.

Indian batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have been in great form. Everyone were surprised with the way Gautam Gambhir was axed from the squad, after opener KL Rahul attained fitness.

Rahul in his nascent global career spanning 10 Tests, 3 ODIs and 5 T20 Internationals has suffered from health issues as well as injuries.

As far as Kohli is concerned, the backdrop could not have been more interesting and the wild allegations of ball tampering levelled by a section of British media could surely act as a catalyst for him to do a Faf du Plessis. Lucky to win the toss, India scored 201 in the first innings and 200 in the second, but won the low-scoring match by a whopping 108 runs inside three days!

Du Plessis, who put the row behind him to score a gritty century Thursday in the third Test against Australia in Adelaide, has warned authorities have opened a “can of worms”. While he claims he was disappointed to be rotated out of the team for the second Test, it is hard to imagine him unleashing much more than a quiet “tut” of disapproval at the decision.

India have been served well by their batsmen in the series so far. “Good luck to them, but we are totally focused on what we have to do in this game”.

“So we need to be aware of how we prepare and things that need to be in place for us to be ready for every game we play and the team has been quite aware of that and this Test is going to be no different”. A “happy hunting ground” for India, Mohali, has seen India win five Tests and draw five out of the 11 played. “I so badly want to be in Mohali”.

India playing XI: Pujara, Kohli, Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel, Jadeja, J Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ajinkya Rahane, KK Nair, Ashwin, and Umesh Yadav.