Cricket: India look for fresh start, take on England in tri-series game

After coming out second-best to Australia on Sunday, India would look to plug the bowling loopholes and ensure a stronger batting display when they take on England in the third one day international in Brisbane on Tuesday. At the Gabba, both sides will be looking to register their first win in this tournament with the hosts having stolen a march on them with two successive wins.

Australia beat England by three wickets in Sydney on Friday and then beat India by four wickets in Melbourne on Sunday.

India can take some solace from their match against Australia in the sense that they pushed the hosts a lot closer. By their own admission, the Australian batsmen were going for that bonus point against England and thus lost quick wickets in the middle order. The repeated mini-collapse against the Indian bowling was no such fluke.

Two bowlers played a key role in squeezing the run-rate, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Axar Patel. It was quite a positive for the Indian team, reeling under the inconsistency shown by their attack in the preceding Test series. They missed the mediumpacer in the first three Tests and when he returned in Sydney, he was way off-colour, down on pace and lacking in match fitness. A five-day rest since and lot more bowling in the nets has done him good.

Sunday’s performance should be another boost for him to return to form for the Men in Blue need him to work his magic with the new ball.

In only his first international outing in Australia, the young left-arm spinner Axar impressed with his control as skipper MS Dhoni even opted to hold back a few of his overs and bring Patel back later during the end overs of the chase.

Meanwhile, Suresh Raina is relieved to be in good ODI form ahead of next month's World Cup. Raina scored a half-century in the tri-series ODI against Australia after having bagged a 'pair' in his return to Test cricket after two years.

"In Sydney (fourth Test) I played my first Test after more than two years and didn't score a run. That hit me real bad. Everyone in the team tried to cheer me up saying 'it's okay, it was hard luck'. But I was really disappointed. I was just stunned. It felt like a bad dream. I had worked so hard for this opportunity and earned it after so long," Raina told 'bcci.tv'.

"It happened to me in England in 2011 - I got a pair in the Oval Test and then did well in the ODIs. So, I had been in that situation before. But this time it was tougher because of how long I had waited for this chance. What helped me get over it was that we drew the Test. Had we lost it, it would have been devastating for me," he said.

Raina said the drawn matches were a huge factor in helping him reboot himself and be prepared for the ODI tri-series, which also features England.