Removing The Wall stands between England and series win over India
Published:Only the weather realistically stands between England and victory in the third Test over India, but Rahul Dravid certainly has the credentials and strength of mind to make it a long fourth day at Edgbaston.
England need nine wickets to take a 3-0 series lead and confirm their spot as the world’s number one Test team, after Alastair Cook’s 294 left them in a supremely dominant position.
Andrew Strauss’s team then removed Virender Sehwag late on the third day for his second first-ball duck in the match, meaning that the pressure is on Dravid and Gautem Gambhir to show some backbone and take the fight to England.
England are 1/12 in the cricket odds to beat India at Edgbaston and they would ideally want to wrap up victory with a day to spare to allow an extra day’s rest ahead of the final Test at the Oval.
It is extremely unlikely that India will be able to make England bat again as they begin day four 451 runs behind and rain remains their only serious hope of claiming an implausible draw.
But India still have some world-renown batsmen in their ranks, who will mostly all feel that they owe their country a big innings in the series.
It is 5/6 that India surpass 320 in their second innings from their current position of 35/1 and much of the onus will be on Dravid to lead the rally.
Dravid is the only Indian batsman currently in the top nine series runscorers and is also the only one to have a made a century in the series.
The Wall is 5/6 to reach 50 in his second innings at Edgbaston and it took a special delivery from Tim Bresnan to dismiss him in the first innings.
Sachin Tendulkar is still waiting for his 100th international century and this would be the optimum time to show his class in a series where he currently only averages 23.
