England looking to salvage some pride in India

England at the moment are having a tour to forget but there might be something from that tour they can remember if they prove they are the number 1 team in Twenty20 by winning the T20 International. 


But the keyman that has just moved in India, Robin Uthappa, can spoil the fun with his explosive batting...


After India completed their revenge whitewash, England still want to beat their ugly fact that they haven't win in India against India since 2006. India might want to break their relaxing mood after their 3 day off with the Diwali break. But England need to beat their spin difficulties that were largely shown in the final ODI with their dramatic collapse with 10 wickets fallen for 47 runs as well as the spin bowlers not getting much wickets. In fact, the pace bowlers and some thanks with Steven Finn's bowling figures in the past ODIs were the wicket takers.


But one of the big test for the organisers though is the lack of spectators that were shown in the final ODI in Kolkata. The unpleasant sight of empty seats in such a big match with 2 big heavyweight sides undermined the fact that there is an overdose in cricket and also the big ticket prices that keep spectators to watch the matches at home. 
Sources from ESPN and BCCI show these figures in attendance of previous ODIs in the series:

• The opening game in Hyderabad had an approximate crowd of 28,150 out of the official capacity of 39,600, according to the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA).
• At the second ODI in Delhi, police estimated a crowd of 35,000 out of a capacity of 42,000; other estimates put the attendance at closer to 30,000.
• Crowd figures from the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), hosts of the third ODI in Mohali, said about 25,000 of the 27,500 seats were occupied during the match there.
• Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, came from the Wankhede Stadium during the fourth ODI, watched by 18,000 in a stadium that seats 33,000; the MCA said they'd sold 13,000 tickets.

Moving on now to the player news, right at this moment Kevin Pietersen is having his broken thumb tested in the nets and looks unlikely to play for England. But the big newws in India is that Robin Uthappa had retuned to the India squad to play against England since 2007 where he was the hero of the 6th ODI in the series in which India was playing in England in 2007. 


But now the ICC has released the Twenty20 rankings, if England lose the match, they will move down to third and if India win, they might go 4th depending on the ranking points.


England Squad (Note that there might be a late change to the squad with Pietersen's injury):
1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Ian Bell/Kevin Pietersen, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Tim Bresnan, 10 Jade Dernbach, 11 Steven Finn


India Squad (probable):
1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Robin Uthappa, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Manoj Tiwary, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Rahul Sharma, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 R Vinay Kumar, 11 Varun Aaron