| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
New Delhi: 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 archrivals Pakistan on Sunday 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.
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 Feroz Shah 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 on Sunday.
The two experienced openers -- Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir -- have invariably failed to give a good start and that has hurt the team badly. The Indians may contemplate benching either Sehwag or Gambhir and let Rahane open the innings.
The form of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina has been patchy and none of them have shown consistency nor have they shouldered the responsibility.
In the absence of retired greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the experienced players in the team have not shown the willingness to take the batting load.
India's bowling also does not have the bite to pose much problems for the strong Pakistani batting line-up which has been well-served by left-handed opener Nasir Jamshed who has cracked back-to-back centuries.
The trio of Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar neither have the pace nor the consistency to evoke any confidence while spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have also not been in the of best form.
The batting has clicked with Jamshed in stunning form while the experienced Mohammad Hafeez and Younis Khan have also chipped in with useful contributions.
But it is their bowling which has really made the difference, particularly the potent pace trio of Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan and Umar Gul.
Junaid has shown an exceptional ability to swing the ball and used the damp conditions in Chennai to devastating effect by ripping through India's top order.
Irfan, the towering 7 feet one inch speedster, has also proved to be quite a handful for the Indians, getting the ball to bounce disconcertingly while Gul has also been impressive.
In the spin department, Saeed Ajmal can prove to be a wily customer while Hafeez and Shoaib Malik are good at doing the containing job.
Teams from
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and Mohammad Shami Ahmed.
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wk), Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Anwar Ali, Haris Sohail, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Zulfiqar Babar.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
Sunday January 6, 2013
Start time 1200 local (0630 GMT, 11:30am Pak)
