Gaji
England celebrated accomplishment No. 1 in the world with a good night in Birmingham on Sunday but it was soon backing to the day job and, four days later, they previously face the first test of their new status. The 'dead rubber syndrome' is always a risk when a team has scaled such heights to secure a major goal and Andrew Strauss will be anxious that nothing takes the gloss off the achievement of the last month.
In truth it will take a lot to remove the after-glow of three commanding performance, but this England team is never satisfied. They'll see this final Test at The Oval as a chance to lay down one more markers with a show of hunger and desire. Even the great Australian sides under Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh had issue with keeping strength high when a series was decided. England benefit with a number of one-off Test victories and won't want to offer India a similar opportunity.
It's difficult to see India lively back to save face over the next five days. They have been so far off the pace that this is a series they'll want to relegate to history as quickly as likely. That, although, will be easier said than done with the fall-out well under way back at home and serious questions being asked of the team. Some of those questions are more sensible than others, but a number of players will be heading back with damaged reputation.
The much-vaunted batting line-up has one more chance to live up to their billing having not reached 300 in the series. The wait goes on for Sachin Tendulkar's 100th hundred, while Gautam Gambhir has dissatisfied and VVS Laxman hasn't made the most of some decent form. Then there's the challenge of taking 20 wickets. The pace bowlers have all had their moments but, collectively, have not been able to maintain pressure on England.
Praveen Kumar has been a tireless workhorse and Ishant Sharma has kept running in, but they have suffered from not having an inexpensive spinner to tie up an end. If Oval history is anything to go by they could be in for more hard toil.
England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 James Anderson
India (possible) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 MS Dhoni (c) (wk), 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Praveen Kumar/RP Singh, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Sreesanth
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