India and England face off in the third of five Tests at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, starting on Saturday November 26.
After the drawn first Test at Rajkot, the Indians came back strongly to win the second encounter at Vizag. They now lead the series 1-0, but with three Tests still left in the series, the visitors will be confident of a comeback.
In fact, England (in 2012) are the only team ever to win a Test series in India after being behind.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of pitch is served up at Mohali. Traditionally, it has been the one ground in India where the faster bowlers have found success. But in the Test between India and South Africa last year, it was what one would call a ‘dustbowl’, with India’s spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picking up 16 wickets between themselves.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: 26 November 2016 – 30 November 2016
Time: 09:30 local time (IST), 04:00 GMT, 08:00 GST
Venue: PCA IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Star Sports 1, HD 1 (English), Star Sports 3, HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports 2 HD
Online streaming: starsports.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE blog: Sport360 blog
TEAM NEWS, SQUAD, PREDICTED XI
INDIA SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
India have made two changes in their squad for the Mohali Test. Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir has been dropped for the fit-again pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar while the injured Wriddhiman Saha will be rested with Parthiv Patel coming into the team.
While Patel will return as the wicket-keeper, India are unlikely to make any other changes to their line-up. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jayant Yadav did well with the bat in hand at Rajkot and that will encourage Indian captain Virat Kohli to continue with his five-bowler strategy.
With Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav bowling well, there might still be no place in the XI for Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar.
PREDICTED INDIA XI: Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Kohli (c), Rahane, Ashwin, Patel (wk), Jadeja, Jayant, Yadav, Shami.
ENGLAND SQUAD: Alastair Cook (c), Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Gareth Batty, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Duckett, Steven Finn, Haseeb Hameed, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.
After putting on a really good display in the first Test at Rajkot, England came up well short at Vizag, to hand India a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series. The Alastair Cook-led side will be keen to bounce back from that setback quickly.
Ben Duckett’s struggles against spin (particularly Ravichandran Ashwin) continued in the second Test and he has been dropped for the Mohali Test. Jos Buttler will come into the team in place of the left-handed batsman.
Cook has confirmed that Buttler will bat at seven, with the in-form Jonny Bairstow getting a promotion to five. Although Bairstow’s keeping has been excellent recently, the England think-tank might be tempted to take some load away from him and give the gloves to Buttler.
With Stuart Broad and Zafar Ansari ruled out, England will be in a dilemma whether to replace the two with one spinner and one fast bowler or with two fast bowlers. In any case, Chris Woakes is all set to return to the XI, with the other spot being a toss up between Gareth Batty, Steven Finn and Jake Ball.
PREDICTED ENGLAND XI: Cook, Hameed, Root, Ali, Bairstow, Stokes, Bittler (wk), Woakes, Rashid, Anderson, Finn.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
INDIA: W D W W W
ENGLAND: L D L W L
MATCH PREDICTION
India to win.