Five reasons to be upbeat about England’s chances of winning the series in India

Even though they are already about to lose ODI number one

England look almost certain to lose the first ODI in India but fear not, here at chickendinner we have uncovered five reasons why all hope is not yet lost:

1. England won a ODI series against India last year
It’s little over a year since England last clashed with India in a seven-game ODI series and on that occasion they were 4-3 victors. What made that achievement even more impressive was that India arrived on a great run of form having already beaten the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa.

2. New captains fare well against India
England’s last two permanent one-day captains Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood were victorious in their first one day international series against India, while Vaughan’s predecessor Nasser Hussain led a comeback to salvage a 3-3 draw from a series that England were trailing 3-1 with two to play the first time he encountered India after taking over as captain.

3. India don’t have that great a home record against England
A lot of talk in the build-up to this series has been about the fact England haven’t won a series in India since 1985 but that negates to mention the fact India’s success two years ago marked their first home series win over England since 1982. In fact, if you take the aggregate score of England’s last four one-on-one ODI series in India then the hosts narrowly lead 12-11, which is hardly the massive home advantage that has been implied.

4. They don’t even win much at home these days
India have won only five of their last twelve home ODIs which isn’t a very strong record considering England have won more away ODIs over that same span of games, with six victories from their last twelve matches abroad.

5. India get worse as the year progresses
Since the start of 2006, India have a significantly worse record in the second half of the year than in the first six months. They lost 32% of their games between January and June (16 out of 50 - without including matches that were either cancelled or abandoned) while being defeated in 54% (22 out of 41) of their games from July onwards.

Posted: November 14th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn |