India set to pile on more humiliation on England in Mumbai Test

Yadav had given the home side important breakthroughs - including the wickets of Ian Bell and Samit Patel off successive balls -- in England's second innings in the first Test and it will be a blow for the home side if they have to miss him here.

Zaheer Khan, who used the old ball craftily in tightening the screws on England on an unresponsive pitch at Ahmedabad, will spearhead the attack.

The gangling Sharma, who has recovered from his viral infection that laid him low in the first Test, would be his likely new ball support if Yadav is ruled out, leaving the latter's cover Ashok Dinda in the reserves.

India are also likely to retain R Ashwin, though he gave away over 100 runs while getting tail-end batsman Graeme Swann in England second innings to add to his three-wicket haul in the first, and keep his off-spin rival Harbhajan Singh again in the reserves.

The Indian batting clicked in telling fashion with Sehwag rattling the England attack with a run-a-ball 117, his first in more than two years. Cheteshwar Pujara would also look to continue from where he left in Ahmedabad where he hit an unbeaten 206 in a team score of 521 for 8 declared.

Senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who was honoured last evening by the Cricket Board for his incredible achievement of scoring a 100 international hundreds, strangely has hit only one Test ton at his home ground -- 148 as captain against Sri Lanka in 1997.

The 39-year-old cricketer, who is in the twilight of his glorious career, would be eager to score his second century here as this could well be his final chance to achieve the feat before he retires.

He had missed out on the chance to score his landmark 100th ton by six runs in front of his adoring home city fans during the thrilling last-ball draw against the West Indies last November.

... contd.

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