Our men in white (the Indian test team) will certainly have their task cut out when they take on an under performing English team in the first of a five match test series at the iconic Trent Bridge ground come July 9.........
Team India which will be playing a five test series in England after many a year have a less than inspiring record on the iconic Trent Bridge pitch which is known for it's penchant of favouring fast men who can either seam or then swing the Duke red cherry at pace........
India has only won one out of the five test matches that if has played on this ground, lost two and drawn two and to top it all, men who have never ever been exposed to the rigours and pressures of five test series at any time of their mostly young and developing cricket careers will be cruelly exposed to the same with memories of a 4-0 whitewash on their last tour of England uppermost..........
Ishant Sharma who has widely been touted as the Indian pace bowling spearhead in the absence of veteran Zaheer Khan has done precious little to justify his elevation, he di pick up two wickets in the recently concluded practice match against Leicestershire but also conceded 64 runs in the nine overs that he sent down during the course of the county team's batting effort..........
Messrs Dhoni and Fletcher might well be inclined to try out all eighteen members of the touring party like they did in the first practice match when they take to the pitch in their second practice match against county side Derbyshire in an effort to narrow down and decide upon their playing eleven before the advent of the business end of the long and arduous two odd month long tour...........
The batsmen more or less pick themselves with the injury scare surrounding dashing opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and the patchy form displayed by middle order batsman Rohit Sharma being the only causes for concern............
Dhawan (if he has fully recovered from his injury), Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Sharma, Rahane and Dhoni pick themselves unless Messrs and Dhoni show an inclination towards roping in the services of Stuart Binny as a batting all rounder who can send down a few overs of medium paced stuff as and when desired.........
As usual it is the bowling that will be causing the think tank sleepless nights with a profligate Ishant Sharma, and his comrades in arms Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami still struggling to find their feet as well as come to terms with the alien and somewhat daunting English conditions..........
I for one would be be inclined to go in with four medium pacers with Rohit Sharma sending down a few offers of amiable off spin to give the faster men a break and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Pankaj Singh and Varun Aaron would be my go to men for the simple reason that Bhuvi swings the ball both ways with nauseating regularity while the other three have the ability to both swing as well as seam the red cherry at a rather disconcerting pace and history has it that no batsman has ever been utterly at ease when confronted with a ball that is swinging and seaming around at pace...........
Luckily for me, I am not saddled with the burden of picking and choosing the playing eleven and though I hate to second guess Messrs Dhoni and Fletcher; I for one firmly believe that they will stick to a boring and age old script and select Bhuvi, Ishant, Shami and Ashwin as the four "specialist" bowlers who will be entrusted with the onerous responsibility of picking up twenty English wickets and thereby notch up an exceedingly rare test win on English soil...........
Here's wishing team India good luck and god speed in their valiant efforts........
Team India which will be playing a five test series in England after many a year have a less than inspiring record on the iconic Trent Bridge pitch which is known for it's penchant of favouring fast men who can either seam or then swing the Duke red cherry at pace........
India has only won one out of the five test matches that if has played on this ground, lost two and drawn two and to top it all, men who have never ever been exposed to the rigours and pressures of five test series at any time of their mostly young and developing cricket careers will be cruelly exposed to the same with memories of a 4-0 whitewash on their last tour of England uppermost..........
Ishant Sharma who has widely been touted as the Indian pace bowling spearhead in the absence of veteran Zaheer Khan has done precious little to justify his elevation, he di pick up two wickets in the recently concluded practice match against Leicestershire but also conceded 64 runs in the nine overs that he sent down during the course of the county team's batting effort..........
Messrs Dhoni and Fletcher might well be inclined to try out all eighteen members of the touring party like they did in the first practice match when they take to the pitch in their second practice match against county side Derbyshire in an effort to narrow down and decide upon their playing eleven before the advent of the business end of the long and arduous two odd month long tour...........
The batsmen more or less pick themselves with the injury scare surrounding dashing opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and the patchy form displayed by middle order batsman Rohit Sharma being the only causes for concern............
Dhawan (if he has fully recovered from his injury), Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Sharma, Rahane and Dhoni pick themselves unless Messrs and Dhoni show an inclination towards roping in the services of Stuart Binny as a batting all rounder who can send down a few overs of medium paced stuff as and when desired.........
As usual it is the bowling that will be causing the think tank sleepless nights with a profligate Ishant Sharma, and his comrades in arms Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami still struggling to find their feet as well as come to terms with the alien and somewhat daunting English conditions..........
I for one would be be inclined to go in with four medium pacers with Rohit Sharma sending down a few offers of amiable off spin to give the faster men a break and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Pankaj Singh and Varun Aaron would be my go to men for the simple reason that Bhuvi swings the ball both ways with nauseating regularity while the other three have the ability to both swing as well as seam the red cherry at a rather disconcerting pace and history has it that no batsman has ever been utterly at ease when confronted with a ball that is swinging and seaming around at pace...........
Luckily for me, I am not saddled with the burden of picking and choosing the playing eleven and though I hate to second guess Messrs Dhoni and Fletcher; I for one firmly believe that they will stick to a boring and age old script and select Bhuvi, Ishant, Shami and Ashwin as the four "specialist" bowlers who will be entrusted with the onerous responsibility of picking up twenty English wickets and thereby notch up an exceedingly rare test win on English soil...........
Here's wishing team India good luck and god speed in their valiant efforts........
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