Chennai Test: India eye 4-0, England seek consolatory win

Chennai [India], Dec. 16 : Team India would be eyeing a 4-0 scoreline when they take on England in the last Test of the five-match series at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium here from today.

Having already taken an unassailable 3-0 lead, Virat Kohli and his men would be looking to add to the woes of English skipper Alastair Cook.

India's batting mainstay, however, has insisted that the team is not looking for a 4-0 scoreline, but to perform well and emerge victorious in the last Test.

"Well, we just take one game at a time. I don't think we are looking at the collective series win as 4-0. Every game for us is separate from the other one. The intensity and the motivation to win the Test match remains the same whether we have won the series, haven't won the series, or it's drawn or whatever the case might be.

So, we are not looking at the score-line as such," Kohli said yesterday. "We just want to continue what we have been doing. A lot of hard work goes in to win a Test match and to put a number before it would be unfair to the players and the series as well," he added.

India is unlikely to tinker with the side ahead for the Test. After 26 matches, dating back to the Rose Bowl in 2014, it might even put out the same XI in consecutive matches.

Ishant Sharma is back in the reckoning after his wedding, but it is unlikely that Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be dropped after having taken five-fors in two of his last four Tests.

On the other hand, England will be without Jimmy Anderson, whose four wickets in the series have cost 53 apiece.

Anderson has soreness in the shoulder and ankle, and will not be risked. Stuart Broad, who hasn't played since the second Test in Visakhapatnam, is likely to replace him. The last time England played at Chepauk, Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 103 helped India chase down a score of 387.

India, will aim to become the first Indian team to go unbeaten in 18 matches by avoiding defeat in the series finale.

Source: ANI