Battered and
bruised by yet
another series
defeat, India's struggling cricketers will
seek to restore some pride when they go
into the third and final one-dayer against
arch-rivals Pakistan here tomorrow with
the future of some of the under-
performing stars at stake.
The collective failure of the top order
batsmen even in home conditions has hurt
the team badly in recent times and the
hosts will need a huge spark of inspiration
to prevent the spirited Pakistanis from
achieving a 3-0 clean sweep.
Clearly, the pressure will be on the Indians
who have been plagued by an inexplicable
form slump of their star batsmen while the
limited and inexperienced bowling
resources have compounded the misery
for the hosts who have now sunk to a new
low with the recent debacles.
With the series already out of their grasp,
the Indians may experiment by giving a
chance to some of their bench players but
whether they can change the team's sliding
fortunes remains to be seen in a day-night
game which will start at noon to neutralise
the dew factor.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in good
form with the bat, has been at a loss to
explain the repeated failures and there
have been suggestions that he should
promote himself up the order considering
the poor form of the top half.
The hosts lost the first game in Chennai by
six wickets and the second in Kolkata by 85
runs to give their arch foes their first series
win on Indian soil since 2004-05.
Unless the Indians put up a far better
display, the Ferozeshah Kotla could be a
witness another drubbing for Dhoni and his
struggling men.
Ajinkya Rahane, who has surprisingly not
played a single match despite his decent
showing in the two T20 games prior to the
ODI series, is almost certain to feature in
the playing eleven tomorrow.
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