England, India battle for tri series final spot today

Winners of the match will play against Australia on Sunday

PERTH: India and England clash today in Perth with the winners taking their place in the tri series final against Australia in the shadow of the looming World Cup.

The hosts are enjoying extra time to prepare for Sunday's final at Perth's WACA ground while the tourists go at each other again.

England thrashed India by nine wickets in their last encounter and ran Australia close in their second meeting last week in Brisbane.

And that has put captain Eoin Morgan in a confident mood ahead of the World Cup, which England kick off against Australia in Melbourne on February 14.

Morgan says he fancies another crack at Australia before the big event. "The opportunity to play Australia on Sunday is huge," he said.

Learning how to live with lengthy breaks before important matches could prove critical for the World Cup, which carries on till March 29, added Morgan.

"Having too much cricket on your mind can sometimes create an issue. The less the guys have to think about it, the better.

"And the more we can get used to time off going into the World Cup, it would be really useful.”

For India, hamstrung batsman Rohit Sharma, who hasn't played since scoring 138 against Australia at the MCG on Jan 18, will again be missing.

But Sharma, who trained in Perth yesterday, could be fit for the final if India get through.

India are winless in the series so far, but skipper MS Dhoni feels his team are slowly building after comprehensively losing the Test series to Australia.

Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan has suffered a poor tour and is under pressure to hold his place for the World Cup after averaging just 17 across 11 innings in Test, one-day and warm-up matches.

But Dhoni is backing the 29-year-old to find some form today. "Form is something people don't really see — it's an abstract," claimed Dhoni. "You can come into form and go out of form very quickly.

"You just have to spend that 10 to 12 minutes of quality time in the middle, and everything will fall into place.”

 

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