England look to make best use of final chance ahead of Tests

Ahmedabad: England batsmen will look to tie up all the loose ends as far as playing spin bowling is concerned when they meet Haryana in their third and final warm-up match ahead of the upcoming four-Test series against India on Thursday.

England go into the match having drawn the first two matches, against India `A` and Mumbai `A`. The visitors were, however, deprived of opportunities to test themselves against quality spin bowling as the hosts did not include any top-grade tweakers in the playing XI. Two days ahead of the match, the pitch had a fairly thick cover of grass over it, something the visiting side is not expected to see when the first Test starts here on November 15. While the Test will be held at the main ground, tomorrow`s game will be played at the Motera B ground. With India including three frontline spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha besides Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli, the England middle-order comprising Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Matt Prior will be keen to utilise the game to the hilt, spending as much time as possible in the middle. That they are used to playing Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar and Samit Patel at home will be of some help, but tackling the conditions here is a different ball game altogether. The England players are already watching videos of former India captain Rahul Dravid to learn how to play spin correctly. "We are going through videos to analyse how Rahul Dravid had played spin, used his feet against them and utilised the depth of the crease to defend and attack them," Bell said. PTI