LONDON: Had India, who have won just one of their last 18 Tests on foreign soil, been offered the chance to arrive at The Oval 2-1 down with one to play in this five-match series before their tour started, they might have taken up the offer.

A tightly-packed schedule of five Tests in the space of 42 days has done India few favours as they head to south London for the start of the series finale on Friday.

Just a few weeks ago, India beat England by 95 runs in the second Test at Lord’s to go 1-0 up in the series.

But that success was sealed by fast bowler Ishant Sharma exploiting England’s vulnerability against the short ball with a Test-best return of 7-74.

Since then Sharma has missed both India’s 266-run defeat in the third Test at Southampton and their even more crushing innings and 54-run loss in the fourth Test at Old Trafford last week with a leg injury.

However, India are increasingly optimistic he could return to action in the fifth Test.

Despite losing inside three days in Manchester, India did again make England’s batsmen look decidedly jumpy when confronted with the short ball to the extent that Stuart Broad suffered a broken nose trying to hook Varun Aaron when the ball found its way between the peak of his helmet and the grille.

But The Oval is not the fast pitch it once. If it stays true to recent type, a slow low surface should remind India of home but will also make the job of ‘bouncing out’ England that much more difficult.

The biggest recent problem for an India side coached by former England boss Duncan Fletcher has been their batting, as exemplified by the team’s struggles to barely get beyond 150 in both innings at Old Trafford.

No one has exemplified their batting difficulties better than the talented Virat Kohli, who has so far scored only 108 runs this series at an average of 13.5.

But it was the manner of India’s collapse, which saw nine wickets lost after tea last Saturday that was perhaps the most concerning aspect of the Old Trafford debacle.

“There were was no backbone shown by India,” former Indian opening great Sunil Gavaskar told BBC Radio’s Test Match Special as he reflected on the humbling loss. “They showed no determination, the dismissals were soft, there were no great deliveries, England were just persistent.”

Yet his point about England not being made to play the kind of cricket that ought to secure such a crushing win remains valid too.

Alastair Cook’s men still have problems to address as well as their bouncer issues, particularly the extent of the gap between the threat of the new-ball pairing of Broad and James Anderson and back-up seamers Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan.

Anderson now needs just eight wickets to surpass Sir Ian Botham’s England Test record of 383 and Broad, who could play in a face mask, will be keen to follow up his man-of-the-match effort in taking six for 25 in India’s first innings in Manchester.

The big boost for England on Thursday was that Broad took part in a net session after the fast-medium bowler missed training session.

He batted in nets wearing a different helmet, facing spin and short-pitched throw downs from England batting coach Mark Ramprakash and later bowled at close to full pace.

“We think he’s going to be absolutely fine,” Cook told reporters at The Oval on Thursday. “We reserve the right tomorrow [Friday] morning, in case something unusual happens overnight. But we’re not expecting anything like that at all.

“He batted, he bowled his six or seven overs and didn’t get any pain from it,” Cook added. “So we’re expecting him to be absolutely fine, and see what mask he pulls on tomorrow.

“I don’t know what’s been going on ... but there have been quite a few masks. I’m not quite sure if he’s just going to wear it when he’s batting, or if he’s bowling, but I honestly don’t think it’s going to affect his performance at all.”

Someone who has proved a thorn in India’s side throughout the series is spin-bowling all-rounder Moeen Ali, who has taken 19 wickets at under 23 apiece.

That England, who had gone 10 Tests without a win before their Southampton success, now have to worry about complacency is a welcome change.

Teams (from):

ENGLAND: Alastair Cook (captain), Sam Robson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Ben Stokes.

INDIA: Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma.

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Paul Reiffel (Australia).

TV umpire: Tim Robinson (England).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2014