A dominant India will be eyeing to clinch the five-Test series against England with yet another comprehensive victory when the two teams square off in the fourth match of the series starting on Thursday.
With an unassailable 2-0 lead after three Tests, the confidence of the Virat Kohli-led team is sky high and they would like to regain the Anthony de Mello Trophy which they had lost to Alastair Cook's side back in 2012.
Even if England manage a draw, India will win the series after the visitors' hat-trick of wins 2011 in England, 2012 in India and 2014 in England again.
In their last two Test meetings at the Wankhede, England had prevailed over India and the 2012 Test match will always be remembered as one where Kevin Pietersen played perhaps one of the finest knocks by an overseas batsman on Indian soil.
On Thursday's match gives India a chance to exact revenge for the two earlier defeats and also make the Chennai Test inconsequential.
The tourists suffered a heavy loss in Mohali and are now expected to come hard at the hosts after spending a week away from the sub-continent in Dubai licking their wounds and recharging their batteries.
In the interim, England had also replaced two injured Asian-origin players impressive teenage opener Haseeb Hameed and left arm spinner Zafar Ansari with two uncapped players - Keaton Jennings and Liam Dawson.
Hameed's loss due to a finger fracture sustained in Mohali is a big blow to England who will be hoping that the South Africa-born Jennings will step into the other youngster s shoes seamlessly and perform well the difficult role of opening the batting with skipper Alastair Cook.
India, too, have injury issues with Ajinkya Rahane being the latest entry in the injured list after he suffered a fracture on his right index finger during pratice on Wednesday.
The out of form batsman has been ruled out of the remaining two Tests with Manish Pandey coming in to take his place. Pacer Shardul Thakur has also been brought in as back up for Mohammad Shami.
Coach Anil Kumble pointed out at a media conference on Tuesday, the newcomers had slipped in and performed well to contribute to the hosts' domination of the rubber after having played second fiddle to the tourists in the series opener at Rajkot.
India's top-order batting has been shored up by the sublime form exhibited by No 3 Cheteshwar Pujara and captain Virat Kohli and any subsequent wobble has been arrested by the lower order batsmen led by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Parthiv Patel, who was recalled to the team after an eight-year gap, took on the unenviable job of opening the batting against the top-class England new-ball attack led by the redoubtable James Anderson with lan in Mohali, making 42 and 67 respectively.
With the return to fitness after a forearm injury of KL Rahul, who did not play the third game of the series, the pint-sized wicket keeper is expected to bat in the middle-order.
Rahane sustains injury, Thakur named back-up for Shami
India are sweating over injury issues with batsman Ajinkya Rahane being ruled out of the remaining two Tests against England after sustaining an avulsion fracture on his right index finger during the team's practice session and has been replaced by Manish Pandey.
A ball struck Rahane on Wednesday in the nets and the BCCI medical team confirmed that he would not be able to play in the last two matches of the ongoing five-Test series against England, which India are leading 2-0.
While Pandey has been included as Rahane's replacement, medium pacer Shardul Thakur has been called as back-up for India pacer Mohammed Shami, who is nursing a sore knee.
"The BCCI medical team is closely monitoring his (Shami) progress and a decision on his participation will be taken before the start of the fourth Test match," a BCCI release said.
Shami had undergone a knee surgery after the last World Cup and was out for 15 months and Kohli said this was the reason the team did not want to push him to play if the bowler was not comfortable.
"Because he has a history of knee surgery, we don't want to push a player to an extent where we lose him for the whole season. So we will take a call, as I said, in the evening, to how much rest he needs, or he can go for Thursday as well.There is still a bit of time for that to be decided."
Rajkot is the blueprint on how England should play: Alastair Cook
Down 0-2 in the five-Test series against India, England captain Alastair Cook feels his team needs to go back to the first match at Rajkot, where they played positive cricket to eke out a draw before losing the plot in the following two games.
"It's a clear message I knew was coming out (from Bayliss). We sat down at the end of the Mohali game and discussed how we wanted to play. We chatted at the end of that game and it's a very fair thing as part of the leadership group alongside Trevor and a couple of coaches," said the England skipper.
"Rajkot was our blueprint, we played really well there and we might have just slipped off a little bit in terms of that intent. Hopefully we can go back to that. It was just not Trevor saying," Cook added.
Gap between Tests has benefitted us, says Kohli
Virat Kohli welcomed week-long break between third and fourth Test, which he feels benefitted the squad but also made it clear that the foot is firmly on the pedal as they are inching towards a much deserved series victory. "We did not ask for the gap. It was part of the schedule, so we make sure when we go there (England) that we have eight days' gap after three Tests, and a 25-day gap between One- Day and Test series," said Kohli.
"With a long season ahead, it (break) did us no harm. It actually helped us rest a bit, reflect on what we have done in the two games that we have won and just visualise again and come back even more fresh compared to last two Test matches. It was good thing that happened and we certainly benefitted from it." he added.
Asked how necessary was it to meet friends, family in the game, Virat said:"It is much needed, It is necessary that you move away from your profession and enjoy life and it is a very important thing."