England vs India: Different venue, same result for captain Cook
Published:India certainly have more grounds for optimism heading into the fourth one-day international, but it will be business as usual for England as they should establish a 3-0 series lead.
The selections of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin appeared to revitalise a jaded Indian team as they produced arguably their best performance on their tour of England at The Oval.
However, a disappointing display from their top-order batsmen and their pace bowlers allowed England to scramble home.
And it appears that the same problems will exist at Lord’s, particularly as India’s fast bowlers are unable to really trouble England’s opening batsmen, virtually ensuring a good start to their innings.
England’s cricket odds are 8/15 to beat India and guarantee victory in the one-day series to go with their whitewash in the Test arena.
India must win at Lord’s to give themselves a chance of drawing the series in the final game at Cardiff, but with the pitch likely to be less spin-friendly than The Oval this may prove problematic.
It was their spin bowlers that previously caused the most problems and their best chance of victory could be if some turn can be found again.
India may also have a better chance of winning if they manage to bat second, as England have had the luxury of pacing their run chase in every one-day meeting so far.
It is 6/4 that India collect their first victory of their English tour at Lord’s and bowling first may give them the opportunity to restrict England to a small total that they can chase.
Alastair Cook has looked in good form all series with India and the England captain perhaps looks the most likely to be his team’s top runscorer at 7/2.
For India, Rahul Dravid is certainly the most inexperienced player in their team and has the capability to hang around for practically the whole innings.
Dravid is 4/1 to be the Indian top runscorer at Lord’s.
