A stumble on Thursday will push them into a gorge from where climbing up will be a tough task.
But that is easier said than done. Their performances in the last three one-dayers has been close to pedestrian, and they will have to lift themselves a couple of notches to match an in-form England.
To start with, India's fielding has been glaringly below par in the series, and they will have to find a way to overturn that. They have been leaking at least 25-30 runs through misfields and weak throws. The men in blue will also have to show a lot more sharpness in catching to mount a meaningful challenge in the day-night encounter.
Long stint
The think-tank is concerned with the shoddy display, and it came as no surprise that the team engaged in a nearly two-hour practice session devoted exclusively to fielding and catching on Tuesday afternoon.
The other grey area is bowling as the visitors have failed to curb the opposition even while employing five bowlers. In that scenario, if the management reverts to the four-bowler theory, Munaf Patel might miss out with either Robin Uthappa or Gautam Gambhir figuring in the team.
They might also stick with the two-spinner policy as Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla have emerged as the best Indian bowlers so far. Mumbai off-spinner Powar was exceptional in the last two matches, bamboozling the batsmen with his fine bag of tricks. Powar was not afraid to toss the ball up and challenge the batsmen, and he reaped just rewards.
Sensational Chawla
Chawla has been just short of sensational. The young leg-spinner has played a major role in limiting the impact of Kevin Pietersen in the series. The Uttar Pradesh lad has dismissed Pietersen in two consecutive matches.
The batsmen are, no doubt, in fine form, but one or two of the leading names will perforce have to play long innings so that the younger names can rally around them.
Having said that, the younger players too will have to put their hands up and share responsibility. In the last three one-dayers, it was the older generation that fired with the bat and guided India. There have been a lot of expectations of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Kaarthick, but the trio has not been up to the mark.
Dhoni played an innings entirely out of character in the first one-dayer in Southampton, where he struggled to put the ball away. The Jharkhand batsman had a golden chance to correct the record in the third match in Edgbaston, but a moment of carelessness cost him his wicket and India the match.
Perhaps, the best position for the big-hitting batsman is number three as he can spend considerable time at the crease. Dhoni can look a bit ungainly -- especially against pace early on -- but if he manages to stick it out, the wicketkeeper-batsman can destroy any attack on his day.
England, meanwhile, suffered a scare in the morning when skipper Paul Collingwood missed the practice session with stomach cramps. The team management, however, hoped that the Durham all-rounder will be shipshape for the morrow's match.
The home side also received a boost when all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was declared fit. The Lancashire player had suffered a knee injury in the second match in Bristol, forcing him to sit out of the previous match. His return, mostly for Owais Shah, will certainly boost the England bowling, besides beefing up the middle-order batting.
Dimitri Mascarenhas too participated in the nets actively, indicating his recovery from the thumb injury that kept him out of the third one-dayer.
Teams (from):
India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel
England: Paul Collingwood (capt), Ian Bell, James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Alistair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Jon Lewis, Chris Tremlett.
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Ian Gould. Third umpire: Mark Benson. Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka).