England’s third one-day International against India, at Edgbaston on Monday, will be the first all-day game in the seven-match series. The side batting second will stand a fair chance of winning, which is not the case in day-night games in England. Indeed, the side batting second at Edgbaston in one-day Internationals wins more often than not.

For Ian Bell, in particular, Monday is significant. At 25, the prodigy has broken through in not only Test but one-day cricket after scoring 126 not out and 64 in this series. What he has yet to do is make a significant score on his home ground for England.

For England’s current batsmen, playing at home can be a spur. In the Test series against India, Andrew Strauss got out when attempting to reach his fourth century in eight Tests at Lord’s. Michael Vaughan averages 43 in Tests at Headingley, no more or less than he does in Test cricket as a whole. But Bell has yet to break through the barrier at Edgbaston.

In his one Test on his home ground, Bell scored six and 21 against Australia — although it was a mighty valuable 21 made when England were 31 for four on that sickening Saturday morning. In his two Internationals there, he has scored two and two, a trend he must reverse as he is now a specialist batsman, his bowling almost atrophied, in England’s top three.

“Now is the crunch time for me in one-day cricket,” Bell said ahead of Monday’s match, with the series level at 1-1. “I’ve played 40-odd games, done ok at times and not at others. Generally they have been pretty good wickets for one-day cricket at Edgbaston this season. Now I have to take the fact that it’s Edgbaston out of my head.”

Apart from being England’s leading run-scorer in the first two Internationals, Bell also had the distinction of using his feet to the Indian spinners more often than anyone else in Friday’s day-nighter at Bristol. England’s batting in this series has seen a substantial improvement on their usual one-day form, which is more than can be said for their bowling. But in one respect it remains as feeble as ever: in the collective playing of spin.

As India’s sapient captain Rahul Dravid said afterwards: “The spinners got the crucial wickets we needed.” Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar played upon the collective and long-standing inability of England’s batsmen to use their feet. Paul Collingwood came down the pitch once and was bowled by Chawla’s googly. Ian Bell came down the pitch twice, drove the first ball for six and lofted the next to long-on.

Bell so far has succeeded in this series without departing from his niche role in the England team as the embodiment of orthodoxy: well, he tried two reverse-sweeps on Friday but neither yielded a run. He does not vary his game for one-day batting or employ a heavier bat, so it is an even smaller niche for which he aims: that of being the only successful batsman in one-day Internationals who does not depart from orthodoxy, never using the “power-position” of going down on one knee to hit bottom-handed power-shots.

The bowling of spin is as difficult for England as batting against it. Monty Panesar will probably play on Monday, but until he varies his style there is no real change of pace in England’s bowling. Panesar’s quicker ball is faster than the stock ball of Dimitri Mascarenhas, whose batting would no doubt take his bowling apart if he bowled at himself.

For penetration England are left with James Anderson if the ball is swinging, otherwise Andrew Flintoff alone, and he was found to have a mild inflammation of his right knee after a scan, following his collision with a boundary board at Bristol. It was not a Gloucestershire plot, but their captain Jon Lewis has been called into the England squad, while England hope a cortisone injection will keep Flintoff going for a third match in his latest comeback.

After eight Internationals, Chawla has taken 14 wickets; after 24 Powar has taken 29. But as long as Mascarenhas remains fourth seamer England cannot afford a fifth bowler — their spinner — who does not take wickets, and Panesar averages less than one wicket per international. He might well feature in the next World Cup in Asia but it will surely be as the second of two England spinners.

As England’s captain, Collingwood has to find a spinner, to take wickets and speed up his over-rate.

TEAMS

India (likely): Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel.

England (from): Paul Collingwood (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravinder Bopara, Chris Broad, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitry Mascarenhas, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Chris Tremlett.

Match starts: 2.45pm (IST)

Better to treat this as a 5-game series, says Dhoni: Page 18