PTI

Mumbai, Mar 18: Having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead, India will seek to give captain Rahul Dravid the perfect gift on his landmark 100th Test by winning the third and final cricket Test against England who have been furthur weakened by the injury to pace spearhead Steve Harmison.

The hosts, upbeat after their nine-wicket win in the Mohali Test, have retained the same squad but it remains to be seen whether they will go in with five specialist bowlers at the Wankhede stadium where the track was expected to assist the slow bowlers.

The visitors, plagued by injury worries right through the series, will badly miss the services of the lanky Harmison who has been ruled out because of a shin injury.

But Andrew Flintoff and his men, desperately looking to square the series at a gound which has not been too lucky for them, have to pull up their socks to counter the Indians who have found quite a few youngsters capable of turning the game on its head.

If the Indians decide to deploy five specialist bowlers, the stylish V V S Laxman and Mohammed Kaif would be forced to warm the reserves' bench like they did in Mohali.

Leg spinner Piyush Chawla could be sacrificed to include an extra pacer in S Sreesanth, who has recovered from his illness which forced him to sit out the Mohali match.

However, another youngster Munaf Patel, whose seven wicket haul and his ability to reverse-swing the ball at a good pace undid the English batting at Mohali, is sure to relish the conditions where the sea breeze late in the afternoon helps to move the ball in the air.