There is hardly any chance of them getting some help from weather as a bright sunny day is forecast for the final day. This Lord's Test has been full of threats for India – and in different sizes, ranging from a 6-feet-8-inch Tremlett to a two-milimetre virus. Add to that a mountain of runs to climb in the fourth innings, and you can imagine Team India being surrounded by monsters.
But the visitors couldn't have asked for better men than Dravid and Laxman to row their boat to safety; safety because a win will need a miracle.
Sachin Tendulkar – down with a viral infection – remained absent on the field for 215 minutes of England's second innings. The official word is that since India negotiated 117 minutes of batting on the fourth eveneing, it would be 98 more minutes on the final day, or the fall of the fifth wicket, whichever is earlier, for Tendulkar to bat again.
Gambhir was hit flush on his left elbow by a Matt Prior sweep and didn't open the innings. Though only bruised, his bottom hand on the bat won't be as supple. Zaheer Khan's hamstring has done enough damage to Indian aspirations already and while he batted with a runner in the first innings, India will be in a deep mess should England reach that far on Monday.
However, since that 2001 Test against Australia in Kolkata, India's opponents know what to expect when Dravid and Laxman are at the crease. At stumps on day four, Dravid was batting on 34, while Laxman was giving him company on 32. The two have already put up 61 runs for the second wicket.
It was a fascinating duel that lit up the fourth day's evening at the Lord's. Laxman struck Tremlett for three successive fours — once playing a rising delivery past widish mid-on, then driving one past cover point and rounding it of with a steer to third man. Dravid backed himself against the spin of Graeme Swann and made use of virtually an unmanned off-side field. Dravid has so far batted for 117 minutes and hit five fours. Laxman's knock was embellished with six boundaries.
While the fans would have loved to see a Tendulkar hundred at Lord's, they will now give an arm and a leg to see Dravid and Laxman play out the entire day just as they had at the Eden Gardens 10 years ago. That particular day the Aussie attack was smashed to the smithreens. The Eden Test proved to be the turning point in Indian cricket. Nobody could take India lightly ever after that and the thought of enforcing the follow-on always came with the memory of Laxman and Dravid reconstructing the Indian innings and belief brick by brick.
The Lord's Test, which is the 100th between the two sides and the 2000th in the history of the game, too deserves such an innings. There's no doubt that England have dominated the match and will go for the kill, but there's also no doubt about India's ability to fight back that has come to define their cricket in the last one decade and their rise to the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings.
Dravid and Laxman have been instrumental in helping Indian cricket climb that peak. It's now up to them to keep the team there as well.
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