Preview: India Hope To Bow Out With Maiden Win

Preview: India Hope To Bow Out With Maiden Win

Rahul Dravid talks to the media ahead of his final ODI.

©Action Images

India will hope to end an, as yet, barren tour on a positive note by winning the final One-Day International at Cardiff. Whitewashed in the Test series and winless on the limited overs leg of the tour to date, the World Cup winners will want to give Rahul Dravid a fitting one-day farewell with an authoritative performance in their last match of the summer. England, on the other hand, will want to carry on their momentum and complete a summer in which they won practically everything on a winning note.

Team News:

Stuart Broad is a definite non-starter for England, while Ben Stokes is looking increasingly unlikely to play after aggravating his season-long finger injury. All of this could mean a debut for either Jos Buttler of Jonny Bairstow, but England are expected to prefer Samit Patel and Jade Dernbach in their eleven.

England (probable): Alastair Cook, Craig Kieswetter, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Jade Dernbach.

India, for once, have no new injury concerns ahead of the match, but a couple of their pace bowlers look out of form so MS Dhoni could be tempted to bring in the untested Varun Aaron.

India (probable): Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Munaf Patel.

Conditions:

A full 50-over game seems as unlikely as ever, with showers forecast for around the scheduled start. Add to this the slow-drying nature of the Cardiff outfield and a delayed start seems likely. Of the pitch itself, expect it to be relatively slow and offer some turn for the spinners, hence England's probable choice to play two of them.

© Cricket World 2011