Come the twenty-first of July, and we are about to witness another romantic saga-India's tour to England, after four long years. If the English tour back in 2007 was sensational, this one's got to be even better, I promise. And there is enough evidence that just suggests the same.
India have just won another overseas test series-something that was quite rare some fifteen years ago-but their far from ordinary performances overseas in the past decade and a half have helped them get rid of their "tigers at home and mice away" tag. And England, especially at home, look stronger than they did India was about to tour them in '07, and sort of invincible now, after having beaten Sri Lanka in the test as well as the one-day series. Two ashes victories-both at home and away, under Andrew Strauss's captaincy, will definitely help to rope in more percentage of English fans, than the ones that turned up last time around. But the fact that India have never lost any test series under Dhoni's captaincy, makes the odds more even. After a long time, we will get to see a test series where none of the teams start as favourites.
There is a lot of history surrounding the intense rivalry between the two sides, who have over the years fought passionately, and equally gracefully, to attain supremacy over one another. And since the turn of the millennium, we haven't had any whitewashes, and no test series has ended with a margin of more than one test match being won by the winning team. And though India are the one-day champions, England have always looked to challenge India in the bilateral ODI series, having won the last two against India at home. However, we are going to have test cricket for an entire month now, so let's just have a look at how the two sides are looking at the moment.
The opening partnership of Stauss and Cook has been impeccable to say the least, and will be a matter of concern for the visitors. The middle order looks settled with Pietersen, Bell, Prior and Morgan, and with Trott trotting runs the way he is, we can expect some individual milestones being reached here. Greamme Swann is at the moment, no doubt, the best spinner in the world, and has been taking care of the spin department single-handedly for a long time now. Anderson and Broad have been a match-winning pair for seasons now, and with good assistance from a third seamer like Tremlett, there lies a challenge for the strongest of batting line-ups.
How India will fare at the start of the test series, however, is something that is a bit of a bother right now. The middle order is in good form with Rahul and VVS already having displayed shades of their class in the Carribean, Suresh Raina with a couple of fine knocks will start as India's no.6, Dhoni also having regained a bit of his touch in the Roseau test, and Sachin does not often take long to settle down, even after missing the game for long amounts of time. Zaheer, who would have had a good amount of rest after the IPL, will have good support from Ishant and Praveen, who struck repeatedly in conditions that were not assisting the seamers too much in the Carribean. However, the departments where India might just struggle with, first up, are the opening slot-with Sehwag missing out at Lord's at least, and Harbhajan's poor form, even on spin-friendly tracks, let alone English conditions, that do not offer too much assistance to the spinners. And if they just get over their frenzy of finding it hard to dismiss the tail, there's nothing like it.
However, with both sides going in with full strength squads and plenty of experience, expect nothing short of a smashing season of cricket ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment