With two back-to-back defeats at Lord's and Trent Bridge,Team India is accustomed to bad news coming in almost every day. And if captain M S Dhoni is in search of motivation,then a winless record at Edgbaston should offer enough incentives. Of the five Tests India have played on the Birmingham ground,four ended in defeat for the visitors,while the only occasion when they were able to save a defeat and manage a draw was way back in 1986. On the other hand,England have a win percentage of above 51,having won 23 of the 45 matches they played at the same venue. Chetan Sharma was the hero of India's only drawn game at Edgbaston when he took a match-haul of 10/188,which continues to be the best by an Indian bowler at this ground and in England. As far as batting at Edgbaston is concerned,India have never managed to reach the 400-run mark,with the highest being 390 in 1986 when the Test ended in a draw. Only Sachin Tendulkar in the current squad has played a Test at Edgbaston before - way back in 1996. The batting maestro scored 122 in a losing cause as India were overwhelmed by Michael Atherton's men in the first Test of that series. The remaining two at Lord's and Trent Bridge were drawn. And the task in 2011 remains as arduous as ever for the visitors. Zaheer Khan,Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh have already been ruled out; Tendulkar hasn't been in his elements; and the batting line-up has failed to hit the 300-run mark in the two Tests so far. Moreover,the fatigue of back-to-back World Cup and IPL seems to be taking its toll on the players,with the injury list growing with every passing day. Though the team has been reinforced with some young players,it remains to be seen whether India will be able to break the Edgbaston jinx and make their way back into the series.
