AFTER A disappointing loss in the first Test match at Lord’s, the Indian team will walk into the second Test starting today at Trent Bridge expecting to level the series by winning the match. On the other hand, England must be a confident outfit as they outshined India in the first Test match of the series.

The Indian team would be without their spearhead bowler, Zaheer khan who has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury. The bowler may be replaced by Sreesnath, who could come in handy as he has the habit of swinging the ball both ways and make the batsmen look foolish. But, everyone knows about his lack of consistency, which is his major weakness along with his temperament. So, Munaf also has an outside chance of replacing Zaheer. The other bowlers would be Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh.

The English team also has an injury scare over Chris Tremlett, who is also suffering from Hamstring injury. But he may be able to play the Test match, if not, he would be replaced by Tim Bresnan. They may be fielding the same team that won the match at Lord’s, as each and every player contributed to their victory.

On the batting front, the Indian team is not sure about the availability of Gautam Gambhir for the match as he suffered a knock while fielding in the first Test match. His absence in the batting order may be a major drawback as they do not have a suitable replacement for the player. It would not be surprising to see if he plays the match along with the injury, as Sehwag would also not be featuring in the match. The rest of the batting order is most likely to be the same.

The Indians will be wary of the English bowlers, who troubled the Indian batsmen as they were not able to handle their consistent line and length bowling. The Indian team must have already drawn out their plans to counter these bowlers.

The Indian team has to win the Test match if they are not to lose their number 1 ranking. If the England team wins the series by a margin of more than 2 Test matches, then England would gain the ICC number 1 ranking status in Test matches.