India have called up middle-order batsman Virat Kohli and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha as reinforcements for their depleted side that is currently touring England.

Kohli and Ojha will come in as replacements for Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh respectively. Yuvraj has been ruled out for four weeks after he fractured his left index finger from being struck by a Tim Bresnan bouncer in the Trent Bridge Test. Meanwhile the woefully out of form Harbhajan Singh will be out of action for a couple of weeks due to a lower abdominal strain.

The Indian team has been struck with a spate of injuries. Opener Virender Sehwag missed the first two Tests following shoulder surgery and has just joined the team in England. His partner Gautam Gambhir came back into the side after missing the Caribbean tour due to a shoulder injury but was struck on the elbow by a Matt Prior sweepshot in the first Test which kept him out of the Trent Bridge Test. He has been declared fit for the third Test. An ankle injury kept pace attack spearhead Zaheer Khan out of the West Indies tour and on the first day of the first Test in England, he sustained a hamstring strain which left India with just 3 bowlers. There is no word on whether he will be fit in time for the third Test.

India will play a two-day tour match against Northamptonshire on August 5th and 6th ahead of the third Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham which starts on August 10th.

Courtesy: http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.yahoonews.com/kohli-ojha-replace-yuvraj-harbhajan-england-20110803/

LONDON (Reuters) – Once a word used to deride England’s cricketers, “predictable” is fast becoming a badge of honour that captain Andrew Strauss and his squad can wear with pride.

Two crushing test victories over India, the second coming in a rush of wickets at Trent Bridge on Monday, have put England on the brink of the top ranking in the five-day format of the game and talk of “domination” is in the air.

While there have been many false dawns, the momentous 2005 Ashes win over Australia being one of them, the riches available to Strauss and manager Andy Flower suggest the D word is not out of place.

In fast bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett and off-spinner Graeme Swann, England have an attack full of potency while Tim Bresnan showed in taking five wickets to skittle India for 158 that Strauss has the kind of back-up options that are the envy of the world.

What India would have done for a bowler of Bresnan’s quality as they toiled in the heat with the game slipping away from them on Sunday afternoon.

Wicketkeeper Matt Prior has improved beyond measure with the gloves and his batting is now approaching the heights reached by great Australian Adam Gilchrist in the all-conquering sides captained by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

Although openers Strauss and Alastair Cook are struggling for runs, the batting order rarely collapses like a house of cards these days and the tailenders regularly score heavily.

Bresnan and Broad contributed 209 runs to England’s cause at Trent Bridge, a key factor in the 319-run victory which left the hosts 2-0 up and top-ranked India staring at a demoralising rout.

COMMON CAUSE

Kevin Pietersen has put his ego to one side and emerged as a batsman who can dig in for the common cause while Ian Bell, with a test average of 47, is world class.

Comparisons with the swaggering Australian teams for whom victory was almost a pre-requisite are not misplaced, especially when considering the fringe players who have proved consistently that they can come in and feed off the confidence within the ranks.

England have won seven of their last eight test series. That should soon become eight from nine and although matching the domination of Australia, who between 2000 and 2008 lost just two series, is unlikely, they certainly look like the team to be measured against for the forseeable future.

It is all a far cry from the days of tortoise-like scoring rates followed by rapid collapses, scatter-gun bowling and sloppy fielding which drew scorn from Down Under.

Shane Warne, once the tormentor of England’s batsman, sees many similarities with the Australian sides he played in.

“When Australia were on top and dominating world cricket, the things we wanted to do were score fast, take the game away from the opposition and intimidate the tail,” Warne wrote in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

“England are doing all those things and showing the qualities that will make them No. 1.”

Warne said there were no obvious weaknesses in England’s squad and like Australia of old, someone would make runs or take wickets at the important moments.

“England are not carrying anyone,” he said. “When you become No.1 side in the world it is all about depth.”

Former England captain Nasser Hussain heaped praise on Strauss’s team.

“There is just no weak link,” he said. “They are the best England team I have ever seen. They are an amazing set of players….I think England are now realising that they are embarking on what might become a very special journey.”

Courtesy:-http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.reuters.com/englands-domination-becoming-almost-predictable-20110802/

NOTTINGHAM, August 1, 2011 (AFP) – Tim Bresnan shone with both bat and ball as England crushed India by 319 runs at Trent Bridge here on Monday to win the second Test with more than a day to spare.

England’s victory, achieved despite Sachin Tendulkar’s fifty, gave them a 2-0 lead in this four-match series as they looked to knock India off top spot in the ICC’s Test Championship table.

Andrew Strauss’s side will replace India at the summit if they maintain or better their lead in the remaining two Tests.

India set a record victory target of 478, were bowled out for 158 with Tendulkar top-scoring with 56 but still left searching for an unprecedented and elusive 100th international hundred.

Bresnan, who earlier made 90 batting at number eight in England’s second innings 544, did the bulk of the damage with a maiden Test five wicket haul of five wickets for 48 runs in 12 overs — including two in two balls before tea.

Only three India batsmen made double figure scores on Monday’s fourth day, with Tendulkar the lone member of their powerful top order to achieve the feat.

No team has made more in the fourth innings to win a Test than the 418 for seven posted by the West Indies against Australia at St John’s, Antigua, in 2002/03.

Before lunch England, who won the first Test at Lord’s by 196 runs, saw off Rahul Dravid, who made 117 in India’s first innings, for just six when he was caught behind off a lifting delivery from man of the match Stuart Broad.

Venkatsai Laxman, another of India’s star batsmen, was then clean bowled by a superb James Anderson delivery for four.

Opener Abhinav Mukund, dropped on nought, struggled to three off 41 balls before falling to Bresnan’s fifth ball, a bouncer he gloved to first slip Strauss.

And Bresnan succeeded with the short ball again when Suresh Raina hit a hook straight to substitute Scott Elstone at long leg.

Tendulkar had struck some typically sublime straight drives off Anderson but he could do nothing as Bresnan, only playing in this match after fast bowler Chris Tremlett was injured, took two wickets in two balls.

First Yuvraj Singh gloved a rising delivery to Alastair Cook at backward silly point and was out for eight.

Next ball India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, inexplicably playing no shot, was lbw for a golden duck to leave the tourists 55 for six and Bresnan on a hat-trick at the start of his next over, which Harbhajan Singh survived.

Tendulkar square-cut Bresnan for four to complete his first fifty of the series with his eighth four before Harbhajan slogged opposing off-spinner Graeme Swann for six.

But Tendulkar fell when he was undone by a good length inswinger from Anderson, taking his wicket for the seventh time in eight Tests.

Harbhajan exited for 46 when a hook off Bresnan was caught by Elstone.

That wicket gave 26-year-old Yorkshire seamer Bresnan, in his eighth match at this level, a new Test-best, surpassing his four for 50 against Australia in Melbourne in December.

Broad ended the match by bowling last man Shanthakumaran Sreesanth for nought.

England resumed Monday on 441 for six with Ian Bell having made 159 after being sportingly reprieved by Dhoni following his run out for 137 on Sunday when incorrectly assuming the ball had gone dead.

Matt Prior, again frustrating India, was 64 not out and Bresnan 47 not out.

Wicketkeeper Prior was out for 73 to end a seventh-wicket stand of 119 at nearly a run-a-ball when he was caught behind off Praveen Kumar, who led India’s attack with four for 124.

Broad, who’d top-scored with 64 in England’s first innings 221 and had then taken a hat-trick on his way to Test-best figures of six for 46 in India’s 288, followed up with 44 on his Nottinghamshire home ground.

But a ball after Broad was run out, Bresnan’s quest for a maiden Test hundred ended when he fended Kumar to Dravid in the gully.

Bresnan, whose Test-best score remains the 91 he made against Bangladesh in Dhaka last year, faced 118 balls with 17 fours.
Courtesy:http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.yahoonews.com/bresnan-stars-england-thrash-india-20110801/