Sussex's Matt Prior is on a mission in England's two remaining one-dayers in India.

Most of the squad will probably be glad to get home next week at the end of a gruelling tour which will finish with a heavy defeat in the seven-match one-day series.

England arrived in Jamshedpur for the sixth match tomorrow already 4-0 down, but a fringe World Cup candidate like Prior this match, and the series finale on Sunday, are probably the two most important games of his England career so far.

Prior, 24, has benefitted from the absence of players such Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick to play in all four games as Andrew Strauss's opening partner.

He has often outperformed Strauss but failure to build on some decent starts have left him frustrated.

He will have even greater scope to impress tomorrow when he keeps wicket in the absence of Geraint Jones, who is out with a thigh injury.

The World Cup in the Caribbean is less than a year away and if Prior is to make the squad he accepts that he has to make more of his opportunity - especially as coach Duncan Fletcher has already admitted that he knows ten of his 11 first-choice World Cup team.

Prior said: "If you get your opportunities you have to take them. I enjoy keeping and I want to keep wicket for England but the main thing for these last two games is to try to get stuck in and get some big scores.

"That is where I will stake my claim and if I can keep well when I get a chance that will put some pressure on.

"With the World Cup it is all to play for and if I can get that first score out of the way I am sure it will give me the confidence to go on and make more.

"I can't worry about what is going to happen down the line and who might come back into the side - all you concentrate on is what is happening on the day to show people you are good enough to get a permanent spot in the team."

Prior has made it into double figures in each of his four innings here but has totalled just 106 runs and found some annoying ways to be dismissed.

"Sometimes it is more frustrating to get out for 20s, 30s or 40s than it is to get out for ten because you have given yourself a chance, seen off the new ball and done almost all the hard work," he added.

"I keep doing that and getting out when I actually feel I am playing really well."

Prior was behind the stumps for last week's four-wicket defeat in Cochin and made an impression standing up to Matthew Hoggard.

He took a neat catch off the Yorkshireman's bowling from an Irfan Pathan edge only for the appeal to be turned down.

Prior said: "Freddie Flintoff had mentioned in the team meeting that with some of the wickets here being slow and low the bowlers should not worry about their egos or be shy in getting the keeper up to the stumps.

"I suggested to Hoggy that I came up to put a bit of pressure on because, as a batsman, I know if you cannot use your feet or get out of the crease on the slower wickets you can get under pressure.

"It almost worked but with 80,000 people in the stadium it is pretty hard to know whether the guy has edged it or not, I was pretty adamant he had but that's the way cricket goes."

The vociferous and at times hostile Indian crowds will be in marked contrast to events at genteel Hove next week when the County Championship campaign starts against Warwickshire.

Prior is not due to return to England until next Monday but Sussex skipper Chris Adams expects him to line up against the Bears.

He said: "We'll have to see how Matt feels when he gets back, but knowing him he will want to get straight back into things."

l Australia are facing of one of the biggest upsets in cricket history after closing day two of the first Test against Bangladesh on 145-6, needing to score 228 to avoid the follow-on after the hosts were dismissed for 427.

Aussie leg-spinner Stuart MacGill claimed career-best figures of 8-108 but the tourists slumped to 93-6 before they were revived by Adam Gilchrist's unbeaten 51.