Virender Sehwag will join the bruised and battered Indians in England on Wednesday. Sehwag, who opted for shoulder surgery after the Indian Premier League (IPL) in May, was ruled out for the entire tour of West Indies and the first two Tests against England.

Sehwag however, has a chance to repeat history now. During India's tour of Australia ('07-'08), the visitors lost the first two Tests (Melbourne & Sydney), but benefited from Sehwag's return to the playing XI in the third Test at Perth. Suddenly, India were a rejuvenated side and registered a historic win at the WACA. Can Sehwag's pyrotechnics turn the series on its head at Birmingham? The 32-year old explosive opener is also expected to play the two-day warm-up tie against Northamptonshire that gets underway on Friday. Sehwag scored his maiden Test century at Trent Bridge during the 2002 tour, but skipped all three Tests in 2007 as the duo of Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik formed a highly successful pair.

In fact, both Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are expected to take the trip to Northampton ahead of the third Test at Edgabston that starts on August 10. Gambhir missed the second Test here due to a shoulder injury, and the return of the Delhi duo will be a major shot in the arm for the India top-order that has witnessed two different combinations in the series thus far. Abhinav Mukund's struggle and Gambhir's shoulder injury propelled stalwart Rahul Dravid to once again don the role of opener at Trent Bridge. Meanwhile, Gambhir is said to be recovering quickly from the shoulder injury he suffered while fielding in England's second innings at Lord's. The duo of Gambhir and Sehwag last opened in the Cape Town Test earlier this year.