In just three days from now, the battle will resume again. This time in coloured clothing and white balls. Yes folks, it will be one-day time from the March 28 and going by the high-intensity cricket played in the Test matches between India and England, it will be a keenly-contested contest, one hopes. It will surely be a contest between a team brimming with confidence (England) and a team that knows what forgetting the bad games is all about (India). With England's 'nothing-to-lose' mindset, nothing is at stake for them but the ODIs for India come at a heavier price - keeping their unbeaten series run in the ODIs thus far since october.
India will start as unquestioned favourites for this series, but one might argue that they did so for the Tests as well. It was upto England to raise their intensity of cricket to match upto the Indians and so they did to, what they might equate to a series win, having been through all the pre-series problems. This time around, it will be a different level of challenge for a team that is not known to trouble most teams in the ODIs. To start off, their recent form against Pakistan comes as a boost for the Indians and having seen some of their players in the recently concluded Tests, it will be bunch of boys whose awareness about the opposition might have just gone a little higher. India does have its own share of problems with Sachin Tendulkar nursing a shoulder injury. But having said that, a problem brings itself an opportunity. For someone like Venugopala Rao or Gautam Gambhir, the call-up to the squad might not have come at a better time. The onus will be on them though, to grab this hint of opportunity and translate it into their destiny, perhaps ! There is something about this Indian one-day team. They seemed least perturbed, though highly disappointed after the Test series loss to Pakistan and their ability to claw out of difficult situations should be commended. It must be noted that India's rich vein of form in the ODIs has surely help mask its undoings in the Tests and if history repeats itself as it did in Pakistan, India should surely come out on top. One need not be an Einstein to figure out if surprises will come England's way and knowing Chappell and Dravid's determination to innovate and 'experiment', several players would be put to test. So, it would be fair to say that the 'Form is with India but the confidence with England'.
On the other hand, England have surely taken a leaf out of India's book in terms of a wink towards the future, and the quite immediate one - World Cup 2007. They have gone with a horses for courses philosophy with guys like Vikram Solanki, Owais Shah and Sajid Mahmood having played here for England A in the Duleep Trophy a season or two back. And more importantly, they are the men in form. Gareth Batty, Vikram Solanki and Sajid Mahmood have entered the squad through sheer merit on account of their strong match-winning performances in the recently concluded England A tour of West Indies. It will be interesting to see how they match-up to the conditions and the weather especially in some of the unusual centres in India, like Kochi which will be nothing short of a scorcher. But, they have a confident leader in Andrew Flintoff, who has eased into the demands of captaincy quite well. The Poms will surely be welcomed by flat pitches and their ability to post big totals will have to come to the fore if they intend to succeed. These pitches can be unforgiving for the bowlers and somehow I tend to feel, this is where England would struggle. There may well be a sameness about their attack and I find it surprising as to why a bowler like Monty Panesar has been sent home, after all the good work he did in the Tests. If England do believe in wearing the underdog tags, they might be able to spring a bigger surprise on the punter's bets - India.
Flexibility of thought and action would decide the outcome on Indian pitches. After the near whitewash of the Sri Lankans and the tough grind against the Proteas', it would not be wrong to brand the Indians as clear favourites by a long mile. But, it will also be imperative for them not to let complacency creep into their systems as it did in Mumbai in the test match and go out their and play the game with a sense of meaningfulness, purpose and intensity. The last time the English were here, India managed to succumb to the pressure after leading the series 3-2 and the visitors drew the series at Mumbai. This time around the teams are different, the centeres are different and of course the form !
One hopes to see a highly competitive series of cricket and this would be only justified if the better team wins. Both teams are young in terms of age and spirit, but the team that holds its nerve in the testing conditions coupled with good catching and fielding will come out on top !
For now, let the battle begin !
India will start as unquestioned favourites for this series, but one might argue that they did so for the Tests as well. It was upto England to raise their intensity of cricket to match upto the Indians and so they did to, what they might equate to a series win, having been through all the pre-series problems. This time around, it will be a different level of challenge for a team that is not known to trouble most teams in the ODIs. To start off, their recent form against Pakistan comes as a boost for the Indians and having seen some of their players in the recently concluded Tests, it will be bunch of boys whose awareness about the opposition might have just gone a little higher. India does have its own share of problems with Sachin Tendulkar nursing a shoulder injury. But having said that, a problem brings itself an opportunity. For someone like Venugopala Rao or Gautam Gambhir, the call-up to the squad might not have come at a better time. The onus will be on them though, to grab this hint of opportunity and translate it into their destiny, perhaps ! There is something about this Indian one-day team. They seemed least perturbed, though highly disappointed after the Test series loss to Pakistan and their ability to claw out of difficult situations should be commended. It must be noted that India's rich vein of form in the ODIs has surely help mask its undoings in the Tests and if history repeats itself as it did in Pakistan, India should surely come out on top. One need not be an Einstein to figure out if surprises will come England's way and knowing Chappell and Dravid's determination to innovate and 'experiment', several players would be put to test. So, it would be fair to say that the 'Form is with India but the confidence with England'.
On the other hand, England have surely taken a leaf out of India's book in terms of a wink towards the future, and the quite immediate one - World Cup 2007. They have gone with a horses for courses philosophy with guys like Vikram Solanki, Owais Shah and Sajid Mahmood having played here for England A in the Duleep Trophy a season or two back. And more importantly, they are the men in form. Gareth Batty, Vikram Solanki and Sajid Mahmood have entered the squad through sheer merit on account of their strong match-winning performances in the recently concluded England A tour of West Indies. It will be interesting to see how they match-up to the conditions and the weather especially in some of the unusual centres in India, like Kochi which will be nothing short of a scorcher. But, they have a confident leader in Andrew Flintoff, who has eased into the demands of captaincy quite well. The Poms will surely be welcomed by flat pitches and their ability to post big totals will have to come to the fore if they intend to succeed. These pitches can be unforgiving for the bowlers and somehow I tend to feel, this is where England would struggle. There may well be a sameness about their attack and I find it surprising as to why a bowler like Monty Panesar has been sent home, after all the good work he did in the Tests. If England do believe in wearing the underdog tags, they might be able to spring a bigger surprise on the punter's bets - India.
Flexibility of thought and action would decide the outcome on Indian pitches. After the near whitewash of the Sri Lankans and the tough grind against the Proteas', it would not be wrong to brand the Indians as clear favourites by a long mile. But, it will also be imperative for them not to let complacency creep into their systems as it did in Mumbai in the test match and go out their and play the game with a sense of meaningfulness, purpose and intensity. The last time the English were here, India managed to succumb to the pressure after leading the series 3-2 and the visitors drew the series at Mumbai. This time around the teams are different, the centeres are different and of course the form !
One hopes to see a highly competitive series of cricket and this would be only justified if the better team wins. Both teams are young in terms of age and spirit, but the team that holds its nerve in the testing conditions coupled with good catching and fielding will come out on top !
For now, let the battle begin !
3 comments:
would like to correct on something..talking about experiment and innovate..!! :) ..let me start with Pathan..when Ganguly sent him up the order in Zimbabwe, realising his potential with the bat..it was termed as atrocious..and..when dravid..does..it..RED WORDS HEADLINE..INNOVATIVE..and..i dont ..see any other form of innovativation..other than..being rather..charitable..
:I
I really think that England will win the ODI series... Indian team are inder pressure to perform well after the Wankhede debacle and quite often we've collapsed in these situations... Dravid's real test comes now... hope he does well...
nice blog mate...
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