Struggling India Still Seek Elusive Win at Lord's

London: The Indian cricket team is going through one of the toughest phases of its life. In the last two months or so, whatever the team tried, didn't work.

The injury-hit squad lost 0-4 in the Test series, failed to win the one-off Twenty20 international in Manchester and have been beaten in two close matches in the ODI series so far.

From here, they can't win the ODI series, but the stage is left for them to restore some pride by squaring the series - which looks quite a task in hand. Primarily because England are on a high with a 2-0 lead and there are predictions of light rain when they take on the hosts in the penultimate match at Lord's on Sunday.

Put these two factors aside, can India stop England from another humiliation in the shorter version of the game? With a fairly young team that seems a tough climb.

Fortunately, some of the youngsters like Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja have already made some impression in the series, but won't it be asking for too much from a team which doesn't have enough experience to counter the best bowling attack in the world? With only two seniors in the side - skipper MS Dhoni and Rahul Dravid - will it enough to make a comeback in the series?

Before these questions are answered, the Indian team, which took an off day from work on Saturday, made it clear that they are going to fight it out in the next two matches without thinking much about the results.

Though success has deserted the team completely, the fresh faces in the outfit have shown the willingness to fight. They didn't surrender abjectly.

There were a few grey areas visible, but the good thing is that the youngsters are keen to learn. Whether a buoyed up England team will allow India to come back into the series or not is a different question.

The story of the one-day series has been that whenever the batters have done well, the bowlers have struggled and vice-versa. Even as Dhoni faces the most challenging tour of his life as captain, he still remains the most inspiring member of the dressing room.

The team wants to try one last time before giving it up. With some of new faces set to play their first game at the 'home of cricket', the motivation level in the Indian team has suddenly gone up.

Surprisingly, the body language after the Oval defeat hasn't changed. The players know that they are staring at a series defeat, but they don't want to accept it - not till it's over.

That's why the support for India hasn't plummeted. In the last match at The Oval, there was an instance of an argument between an Indian cricketer and some of the spectators when the Indian fielders were being booed.

However, that was a one-off incident as most of the spectators who were supporting India were satisfied with the effort the visitors had put on the field.

Teams from

England: Alastair Cook (capt), Craig Kieswetter (wk), Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Steven Finn, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Alex Hales, Samit Patel, Ben Stokes

India: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Subramaniam Badrinath, RP Singh, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel (wk), Vinay Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary

Pitch and conditions
Expect a flat pitch at Lord's, but overhead conditions are likely to be grey with spells of rain. Add to it an early start, and conditions - as it should be - hand an advantage to the home side.

Stats and trivia

• India have managed just four century partnerships across all the international games on the tour combined. England managed four in the first Test alone.
• India have won four and lost two ODIs at Lord's.
• Captaincy has made MS Dhoni a more responsible batsman; his strike-rate as captain falls to 82 from an overall 87.

Match facts
Sunday September 11, 2011
Start time 1015 local (0915 GMT, 14:45 IST)