Brett Lee’s comment about India being an unpredictable ODI team in the build-up to the seven-match series may have taken quite a few by surprise. After all, unpredictability is not a term generally associated with Team India — especially at home — and more applicable to sides like Pakistan and West Indies.

But whether it has been the fighting partnership between Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar at Vadodara, Yuvraj Singh’s gritty 78 on the low and slow Kotla track or Ravindra Jadeja’s consistency with the ball, India have found unlikely heroes in the series so far. While the hosts crushed the Aussies in Nagpur and were dominant for most of the third ODI, the two defeats have come as a result of their failure in giving finishing touches.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni insists his team is looking for the more fancied stars to come to the party on Thursday as both teams look to regain the series lead at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

“After we levelled the series at Nagpur, I had said we have to take it as a five-match series and now it is down to the last three. We cannot afford any more off days,” Dhoni said.

While Dhoni leads the tally in the series with 255 runs at 85 per innings, India’s illustrious opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag is yet to fire. The responsibility of resurrecting the innings has fallen each time on the broad shoulders of the Indian captain. Tendulkar — seven short of the 17, 000 run mark in ODI cricket — has averaged 22.50 while Sehwag — though he has scored quickly — too has struggled to make the most of his starts.

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