A Test series which is swinging one way and then the other continues on Friday when India play host to England in game four of the five, with the two sides heading to Ranchi to continue a very competitive red ball bonanza.
India have created two opportunities to win the series, of which this is the first one, and so a win here will see them wrap it up with a match to play. England have to win here to force a decider so there is plenty at stake in this one.
India
You have to give India a whole lot of credit. When they went a game down in the shellshocked fashion they lost their opening game in, it would have been easy to start panicking and completely unravel, especially with injuries certainly not helping their cause, but to be fair to them they got on with the job in hand and have come roaring back to win the last two games and give themselves a strong chance of landing the series from here.
The big thing for India is their bowlers have stood up to the challenge. They haven’t had it all their own way, and there was a stage in the third game where England looked like they were getting into a position to gain an advantage, but they have stuck to their task and eventually wore down their opposition. We know India will bat well against this inexperienced England spin attack so if their bowlers keep delivering they are going to be tough to beat.
England
When England landed on Indian shores for this series there were many not expecting them to win a single game. That sort of talk was put to bed at the earliest opportunity when Ollie Pope led an amazing recovery to put the tourists 1-0 up in the series. From there the question was whether England could press on and find a second win in one of the next two matches to put themselves on the edge of an incredible series win. They haven’t been able to do that.
They have stuck to their task fairly well in the main but they have also shot themselves in the foot at times too. One or two of their wickets lost have been on the reckless side and as soon as you give a team like India a way into a match you have big problems. England would actually probably have been expected to struggle more with the ball than they have but if their batters can’t bat them into better positions it just isn’t going to matter.
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Team News
India have confirmed that they are resting Jasprit Bumrah for this match and that makes sense with him being so precious to them. That leaves the choice of Mukesh Kumar or Akash Deep as the second seamer in an otherwise unchanged side.
England always confirm their side in advance of the game and they will be making two changes. Ollie Robinson and Shoaib Bashir come into the XI with Mark Wood sitting out on a pitch which won’t really suit him. Rehan Ahmed makes way too.
Betting
India look to have the bit between their teeth in this series now and while I’m not completely convinced by their batting, they have enough players in decent form to get the job done so I’m coming at this match from an India winning point of view, especially as this is going to be the track which offers the spinners the most of the last two games in the series. India are plenty short enough though so we have to work another way into the contest.
That comes in the form of the player performance of Ravindra Jadeja, who has what looks on the face of it quite a high line at 157.5 points. It might be that it isn’t high enough though because the minimum amount of points he has scored in this series with the ball is 100. He took five wickets in the opening game and then seven in the third game of the series. That is 100 and 140 points and then when you consider his two first innings scores have been 87 and 112 we might not even need him to get as many as five wickets in the game. This pitch is going to suit the spinners, potentially more than any other in the series, so Jadeja will be right in the game. A special game with bat or ball covers this as does an average one with both so I like the over here.
Tips
Back R.Jadeja’s Performance – Over 157.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
