With the World Cup final looming ever closer and Tim Henman still standing amid the carnage of seeds at Wimbledon, India's Natwest Tri Series opener against England at Lord's will be little more than a sideshow. It's been one of the better summers for English sport, with a depleted and hyped-to-the-skies football team reaching the World Cup quarter-finals, Lennox Lewis pounding Mike Tyson to contrite pulp and the cricketers doing much the same to Sri Lanka in the Test series. In their first outing under lights, Nasser Hussain and his men indicated that they were in no mood to let up, disposing of Sri Lanka with a measure of comfort that may have worried any Indians watching. That said, with the pitches hard and the sun high in the sky, it promises to be a batsmen's tournament and India are certainly not short of artillery in that department.

Regardless of whether they play six or seven batsmen (with Rahul Dravid doubling up as wicketkeeper), India's batting has a formidable appearance. Sourav Ganguly will open, with either Virender Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar – depending on the situation - joining him at the top of the order. Dravid will be expected to drop anchor at No.3, with Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Mohammed Kaif and VVS Laxman fighting for two, or possibly three, middle-order berths. Kaif and Mongia have been in decent touch with the bat, while Yuvraj has struggled to work the ball off the square. Despite his heroics against Zimbabwe on home soil a few months ago, he could be the one to miss out should India play only six batsmen, and Ajay Ratra don the keeping gloves.

Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff, James Kirtley and Ronnie Irani bowled well against Sri Lanka and know how to make use of the conditions but they will hardly scare the likes of Tendulkar. Chances are that this match will be a shootout between the two sets of batsmen and India's deficiencies in the bowling department could cost them.

Both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra will trouble the English batsmen, who never play left-arm seam with any real confidence. But the third seamer's slot is where the problem lies, with neither Ajit Agarkar nor Tinu Yohannan convincing in the warm-up matches. Agarkar has been the next best thing for half a decade now, without really doing much, while Yohannan is quickly finding out that bowling line and length, allied to a lack of variety, is cannon fodder against batsmen schooled in the limited-overs mayhem. Andrew Symonds savaged the attack when India played Kent and Flintoff, for one, will have noted how easy it was to scatter the field.

Anil Kumble's knowledge of English conditions should get him the nod ahead of Harbhajan as the lone spinner, and he will need to be at his miserly best in an attack that is all raw promise and little experience. Men like Yuvraj and Sehwag will also have a job to do with the ball and they could enjoy some success against batsmen whose feet don't quite dance when greeted with the turning ball.

And with the exception of Kaif and Yuvraj, India's fielding is as sharp as a rusty switchblade. By contrast, England were brilliant against Sri Lanka, Hussain, Irani and Graham Thorpe flinging themselves about like teenage beach volleyball players to pouch stunning catches. There is a keenness to England's cricket at the moment that India would do well to pick up on, and every run saved in the field will be vital as the scoreboard operators work overtime.

If Lord's is bathed in sunshine and the strip plays true, it will be a very long summer's day for the bowlers. Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag and Flintoff should ensure that the complacent old men in the hospitality boxes don't feel entirely safe, and the team that bowls marginally better will edge it.

Teams (probable)
India 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Dinesh Mongia, 6 Mohammed Kaif, 7 Ajay Ratra (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra.

England 1 Nick Knight, 2 Marcus Trescothick, 3 Nasser Hussain (capt), 4 Graham Thorpe, 5 Alec Stewart (wk), 6 Ronnie Irani, 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Paul Collingwood, 9 James Kirtley, 10 Ashley Giles, 11 Matthew Hoggard.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India

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