MOHALI // Owais Shah will aim to exploit England's disappointment at their failure to win the opening Test and force his way into their selection plans for Friday's final match against India.
The Middlesex batsman was England's outstanding performer during their 5-0 one-day series defeat in India earlier, scoring three half-centuries to push his claims for a Test recall at Chennai.
But instead of considering Shah's recent form, England chose the same batting line-up for the opening Test, which finished the home series against South Africa last summer.
Now England face another selection dilemma as they attempt to repeat the feat of two years ago by winning the last game to level the series. Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, who were both under pressure, scored superb centuries at the Chepauk Stadium to ensure their participation although Ian Bell once again disappointed and could find himself under pressure.
It is by no means a foregone conclusion, however, that England will change their batting line-up at all with coach Peter Moores saying they have a big decision to make over the next two days.
"It was probably one of the toughest decisions to not pick him [Shah] because he played beautifully [in the one-day series]," he said.
"The challenge was to decide who to go with and that debate is a really tough one.
"We batted well as a unit and it was justified to give those lads a chance - I think the lads who played deserved their chance to carry on and they put us in with a chance to win the game.
"It should be hard to get into a Test match team and you can always do more in all the cricket you play whether it's domestically or wherever to put people under pressure.
"You have to take a call on what you think is the best team for the day." The tourists are almost certain to recall the Nottinghamshire seamer Stuart Broad to their line-up after his recovery from the hamstring strain he sustained during the one-day series.
He will either replace Graeme Swann if England decide on fielding only one spinner or take over from either Steve Harmison or James Anderson, who both disappointed when the tourists pressed for victory on the final day.
Australia also decided to field only one spinner during their Test in October at Mohali, which has a reputation for being a bouncy pitch, but suffered the consequences when they slumped to a 320-run defeat.
Monty Panesar finished wicketless in 20 overs during the final day and rarely threatened to make a breakthrough.
Moores said Panesar, 26,who was playing his 34th Test, still has time to develop into a world class finger spinner.
"You have to be fair to him that he has not got enough time to prepare. If you look at Monty's record in Test match cricket it compares very favourably to a lot of spinners who have started out in the game and he's still very young in the game," he added.
* PA Sport
MATCH INFO
Who: France v Italy
When: Friday, 11pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
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Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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MATCH INFO
Fixture: Thailand v UAE, Tuesday, 4pm (UAE)
TV: Abu Dhabi Sports
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
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Sreesanth's India bowling career
Tests 27, Wickets 87, Average 37.59, Best 5-40
ODIs 53, Wickets 75, Average 33.44, Best 6-55
T20Is 10, Wickets 7, Average 41.14, Best 2-12
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
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Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
