| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Nagpur: Down in the dumps after back-to-back defeats, India's under-fire cricketers will have to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and compete on equal footing against a confident England in the perform-or-perish fourth and final Test commencing on Thursday.
Trailing the buoyant visitors 1-2 in the rubber after being outplayed in the second and third encounters at Mumbai and Kolkata, the home players need to sort themselves out on several fronts to level the series at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha.
Under-performing senior players in the Indian line-up, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and veteran batsman Sachin Tendulkar, are under severe pressure not only to lift the side with supreme personal efforts but also to save their careers after India's spineless displays at the Wankhede Stadium and the Eden Gardens.
Indian openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag have been pretty casual in their approach thus far, in stark contrast to the grinding efforts of rival skipper Alastair Cook, England's top batsman in the series, and rookie Nick Compton, who has slowly and steadily found his feet after a nervous debut in Ahmedabad's opening Test.
The middle order has been pathetic with only Cheteshwar Pujara showing spunk in the first two Tests before going off the boil.
Someone like Virat Kohli, who was the best batsman for the team in Australia, has fallen away so much to casual shots that he has mustered a pathetic 85 runs in six innings, an indication of the malaise afflicting the team.
To give an impetus to the non-performing middle order, the Indian selectors have chopped the under-performing Yuvraj Singh from the squad and brought in the in-form Ravindra Jadeja and the Saurashtra all-rounder is set to make his Test debut.
Jadeja can certainly complement the style of Ojha and the off-spin of Ravichandran Ashwin, who has not looked the part of a Test bowler except in the closing stages of the Kolkata game when he concentrated on sticking to a correct line and limiting his variations to the minimum.
India have also dropped the out-of-form Zaheer Khan and replaced him with Delhi pacer Parvinder Awana.
But Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda, yet to play his first Test, appear to be the two first-choice pacers for the hosts and Awana may have to wait for his chance.
They can sit on the 2-1 lead by playing for a draw, but it's fraught with danger and captain Cook has responded in a similar fashion after the team's victory in the third match.
While Cook has led from the front with aplomb, the other leading batsmen have rallied around him, with top batsman Kevin Pietersen playing the defining knock in the Mumbai Test and Matt Prior and Compton playing the supporting roles with panache.
The bowlers too have delivered and it is not only the spinners Monty Panesar (16 wickets in 2 Tests) and Graeme Swann (17 in 3). The fast bowlers James Anderson and fit-again Steven Finn have also proved their worth by using reverse swing to telling effect in Kolkata.
Teams from
India: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda, Murali Vijay, Parvinder Awana
England: Alastair Cook (captain), James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Nick Compton, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Stuart Broad, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Graham Onions, Eoin Morgan, Monty Panesar and Steven Finn.
Pitch & conditions
The Nagpur pitch mostly seamer favour, reverse swing could be at evening. It has been a result-oriented pitch as the last three games have ended in a result, two win by India (against Australia and New Zealand) and one lose against South Africa.
Stats & trivia
Match facts
December 13-17, 2012
Start time 09:30 local (04:00 GMT)
