England hoping to exploit Mohali's 'very English' conditions

Describing the cold weather in Mohali as "very English", opener Ian Bell said England's pacers will have to exploit the conditions well in order to level the five-match ODI series when they take on India in the fourth and penultimate match in Mohali, on Wednesday.

Trailing 1-2, England are in a must-win situation to keep the series alive.

Talking about the conditions, he said they are "more familiar than we had in the last couple of games".

"Obviously, it is nice to get out a little bit of breeze, sure helps everyone," Bell added after his team's net session at the PCA stadium on Monday.

"Hopefully, in the next couple of days we will get an opportunity to put up performance like we did in the first ODI and, hopefully, go 2-2 (in the series)," he added.

Admitting that England played poor cricket in the previous ODI at Ranchi, where they were bundled out for paltry 155 that the hosts chased down comfortably, Bell said the team will have to make amends in Mohali.

"If we are going to get 150, that's not going to challenge India at all in these conditions. We have to get a platform; our middle order is very powerful and destructive. We need to get foundation and a platform for our big hitters in the middle, which can keep us going.

"We have been a little bit disappointed with the way we have played (the last two games). We haven't really put up a performance to challenge India at all. Like any game, whether we win or lose, we take our positive and try to work out on areas where we can get better and improve," he said.

"Maybe, we did not adapt to the conditions quite well in the last game," Bell added.

The batsman, however, does not see India having any edge in the Mohali game by virtue of being ahead in the series.

"We went to the first ODI losing two warm-up games. We have to keep believing that we can win and we have shown that we can do that. But we have to do our basics right and all eleven players have to perform and play well."

"India are a fantastic team under these conditions and if we don't perform well as a group, then we are going to get beaten," admitted Bell.

Asked about a few umpiring decisions not going their way, Bell said, "I guess so, but you can't control that. There is not any point having qualms about that. We just haven't played well enough. Obviously, we don't want bad decisions, but we just haven't played well enough."

With the Mohali wicket likely to assist the bowlers, Bell said it would put all the more responsibility on the batsmen to play cautiously.

"If there is a little bit in the wicket, you can't come on and play massively aggressive shots. Ideally, we want to get platform, but we have been losing wickets in the middle."

Bell, meanwhile, heaped praise on India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his young team.

"He (Dhoni) showed us in Kochi that if you have wickets in the last 15 overs, it is hard for the bowlers to stop scoring runs. We haven't capitalised on that," said Bell.

"(As far as the young inexperienced pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed are concerned) they have the ability to swing the ball both ways and have fantastic skills.

"Ravindra Jadeja is very consistent with bat and ball. I think he is a very good one-day all-rounder. He has managed to pick up wickets in the middle, which slows the batting down...we take him very seriously as a front line spinner."

Bell also lauded his team coach, Ashley Giles, saying, "I think our preparations (for the tour) have been outstanding. We could have not asked for more. I think in the last two games we just haven't done our basics right."

Meanwhile, England had an over two-hour practice session in the afternoon, while in the evening the Indian team played a football game and did some stretching exercises.

During the football match, captain Dhoni seemed to be in command as two sets of players took on each other.

Besides Dhoni, other players who looked in great shape were Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh. Gautam Gambhir, too, displayed some good dodging tricks to surprise the opposition.

Ishant Sharma, who was guarding a goalpost on one side, was also brimming with enthusiasm, shouting out loudly and cheering his teammates whenever they scored a goal at the other end.