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Today's fifth one day match in Cuttack will be an indicator of how seriously the Indians are taking the last three dead rubbers of this series.
With an unassailable 4-0 lead already established after the rain affected win on Sunday they may well turn their attentions to the two Test matches scheduled. For England, however, these three games are vital to restoring some semblance of confidence to an under pressure international side.
England captain Kevin Pietersen knows his team are struggling but must be wondering how they can have gone from the polished performances against South Africa to near humiliation in India. Much of this answer lies in the exceptional Indian team that is developing under coach Gary Kirsten and they came into this series with confidence sky high following the performances against Australia.
The Indians have always had a fantastic batting line up and a good bowling attack but now their fielding and running between the wickets is first class and this is an essential component in the shorter version of the game. Kirsten himself was a master of both and his influence is there for all to see.
England, though, have not helped themselves with both selections and a batting line up that insists on being unsettled. To go into the first two matches without a recognised full time spinner was folly by anyone's standards as it does not take a genius to know the pitches in India require the pace being taken off the ball. This is even more so in the one-day game where pitches are prepared for batsmen to try and ensure a run fest for the crowd.
Jimmy Anderson kept his place ahead of Harmison but he must be getting a little concerned for his future as Pietersen still appears to lack confidence in him - he has yet to allow Anderson to bowl out his full quota of overs.
Meanwhile, the batting line up has been confused with Prior opening the batting and Bopara down at number eight for the first two games. This meant a specialised batsman was below all-rounders such as Prior and Collingwood which predictably ended up with him running out of partners. The solution was to drop Prior to eight, where he never bats, Shah at six and put Bopara up the order which looks better but only as long as it is given a chance to work.
Batsmen thrive on confidence and without the complete backing of captain and coaches then it is always an uphill struggle to score the quantity of runs at this level.
On Sunday the Indians again got off to a fantastic start scoring 106-1 after 17 overs with the only wicket being that of Sachin Tendulkar who was returning from his three game break. However, rain delays forced the game to be cut to 22 overs a side and with India scoring 60 off the last five overs the revised Duckworth-Lewis total was 198.
Pietersen has indicated he thought this was an excessive calculation but nine an over for this shorter period was far more likely to be attainable than chasing a possible target of well over 300 again if the Indians had been allowed to finish the innings. This is particularly true in the sense that they did not end up being too far away after a spirited 70 by Shah. However, the initial 21 runs scored off the first 6 overs put paid to any chance of chasing this total down.
In some ways the selection of so many all rounders is beginning to confuse run chases like this in that keeping wickets in hand seems to be a priority to the team tactics given the batting line up is so long now. The tendency therefore is to either put too much pressure on the players at the bottom when the ball is softer or relinquish responsibility once in and playing well, look no further than Ian Bell here, and not see the game through.
Most of the most successful teams have had five batsmen, one all rounder, one wicket keeper who can bat and four main bowlers. This means they all know there jobs and must ensure taking responsibility for what they are in the team for which is either, runs, wickets or catches. This is just as true in the shorter version of the game as it is for the five day version and it is a lesson England must learn if they aspire to the consistency of winning matches and series on a regular basis.
There is no disgrace to losing in India but if the team loses 7-0 or 6-1 and, in addition, fail to be competitive then the negative impact of this will hang over them for some time. The England management have got to find a way of building on success, such as the victories over South Africa - otherwise it may be time to find different leaders to take England forward.
