India hoping to clinch series at Bangalore

After three straight wins, India will seek to clinch the series by going for the kill in the fourth cricket one-dayer against England here tomorrow with a batting line-up strengthened by the return of an in-form Sachin Tendulkar.

India need to win just one more match to wrap up the seven-match series and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his brave hearts will be eager to maintain their winning sequence in the floodlit encounter at the Chinaswamy stadium.

The visitors, on the other hand, have been left with the daunting task of winning four matches in a row to clinch the series and it appears extremely unlikely that they would be able to stop the Indian juggernaut.

The return of Tendulkar has no doubt made the Indian batting line-up more formidable but it would also force the hosts to tinker with the batting order. Tendulkar had been rested for the first three matches of the series after playing in all the four Tests against Australia and it remains to be seen whether he will open the innings with Virender Sehwag.

It will be a tough decision for the Indian team management as making Tendulkar open the innings would mean tinkering with the highly successful opening pair of Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. In case Tendulkar opens, the left-handed Gambhir, who is in very good form, may come in to bat at the number three slot.

For Tendulkar, it will be his first one-dayer in eight months having played his last match against Australia in Brisbane in March this year. The champion batsman gave glimpses of his vintage form in the recent Tests series against Australia and will be keen to make his presence felt after the short break.

The Indian selectors have also brought back paceman Irfan Pathan into the ODI squad but it appears unlikely that he would get a chance to play tomorrow with Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel having bowled well.

The form of Yuvraj Singh, who has cracked two centuries already, has been the heartening feature of the Indian batting line-up and the hard-hitting middle order batsman will have to fire again if the hosts want to clinch the series tomorrow itself.

It has been smooth sailing for the Men in Blue so far in the series but India can`t afford to relax and must guard against complacency. On other hand, there is a lot at stake for the visitors, who need more than an inspirational performance to turn things around in the series.

England have a predominatly pace-oriented attack which has not made much of an impact on the slow tracks. They have now realised that an all-pace attack cannot do the trick and will have to include at least one specialist spinner in their playing eleven.

Captain Kevin Pietersen is likely to turn to off-spinner Graeme Swann to not only stem the run flow but also get the wickets of the Indian batsmen who are known to be good players of spin, particularly at home.