The England-India cricket spell is a long one this time as both teams will play four test matches, two T20Is and five ODIs. The The English trip will go on spilling over the next year till 27 January This means the English squad will be enjoying their Christmas and the New Year in India, though they may go back to England as there is a break from the lst T20I on 22 December to first ODI at 11th January.
The first test match will be played at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad from 15 - 19 November 2012 (5-day match).
This time, the Indian captain Dhoni is banking on the slow bowlers to exploit England's weakness against spin on bouncing and turning Indian wickets. And one of the spinners to watch for is Ravichandran Ashwin - for whom Dhoni remarked, "India do not boast a mystery spinner like Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal but off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin's variations make him quite a handful." This reliance will make England shiver and remind them of their utter defeat in the Test matches against Pakistan and South Africa.
However, the new England captain Alastair Cook insists the pressure is on India ahead of the start of the four-Test series - though England have not won a Test series in India since 1984-85. Let us see how the new English skipper comes up with something hiding up in his sleeve to avoid a test-match debacle and surprise the hosts.
India squad
MS Dhoni*†, R Ashwin, AB Dinda, G Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, V Kohli, PP Ojha, CA Pujara, AM Rahane, V Sehwag, I
Sharma, SR Tendulkar, M Vijay, UT Yadav, Yuvraj Singh
England squad
AN Cook*, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, IR Bell, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, NRD Compton, ST Finn, SC Meaker, EJG Morgan, G Onions, MS Panesar, SR Patel, KP Pietersen, MJ Prior†, JE Root, GP Swann, IJL Trott
Umpires Aleem Dar and AL Hill
The first test is scheduled to start at 04:00 GMT every day from 15-19 November at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmadabad.
If you are one of the fans located at different destination and miss the chance to visit the stadium to watch your favorite team, You can now watch the match live on your laptop or desktop computer, FREE, provided you have an internet connection, from the links given below:
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