Michael Vaughan: England to go 3-0 up

England Cricket / Michael Vaughan / 09 August 2011 /

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James Anderson could enjoy bowling at Edgbaston

"We could have the liveliest wicket of the Series so far at Edgbaston and that will only favour England."

Not even the return of Virender Sehwag is likely to change India's fortunes as we move on to Edgbaston. England will like the conditions and we have to back them to carry on winning.

Tim Bresnan is expected to keep his place with Chris Tremlett still out injured and he's a great player to have as cover. I always felt that the early criticism about him carrying a bit too much weight was slightly unfair. He's a big, strong lad who's never going to be wafer thin but if there were any concerns from the England management that he was carrying a bit too much timber, he certainly dealt with them and looks a superb athlete these days.

He bats, bowls and fields and is right up there with the handiest numbers 8s in the Test game. He's fortunate in that he's come into a super-confident, successful team who's on a winning run and that's the best possible environment to be in when you're still relatively new to this level of the game.

For India Virender Sehwag returns but there are plenty of other changes enforced through injury. Sreesanth could be dangerous at Edgabston but RP Singh has been out of Test cricket for a while, I think England have learnt how to play Praveen Kumar by now and all in all, I'd be surprised to see India take 15 wickets in the match, let alone 20.

The wicket at Edgbaston could be a little different to what we normally get there.The indications are that it will be a flat wicket with little or no pace in it and that should mean that Graeme Swann ends up having more work to do than he did in either of the first two Tests.

There's rain forecast and there could be some moisture in the air so the captain who wins the toss may decide to have a bowl. That said, because of the way things have gone so far in the Series, MS Dhoni may decide that batting first and posting a big total is his best chance of winning the match. We'll have to wait and see what the conditions are like.

Irrespective of how exactly the game pans out, there's no denying that various injuries and the fact some big players are going through an indifferent run of form means India aren't exactly in a particularly good place right now. England are the more settled team and confidence is sky high in the camp just now. We have to carry on showing faith in England @ [2.5].

Edgbaston is normally a result wicket and having predicted that we'd have a result by the end of the evening session on Day Four in the Second Test, I'm sticking with that same bet again, this time at [7.0].

3 pts Back England to win @ [2.44]
2 pts Back Evening Session Day Four in the Test Match End market @ [7.0]

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