Let cricketing action resume by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Event:

England in India 2008/09

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DateLine: 8th December 2008

 

The English ODI team was reeling under the relentless attacking cricket from India when the tragedy of 27/11 happened in Mumbai. It was obvious that the rest of the tour will be in jeopardy as desperate discussions were held to salvage the tour. In the end better sense prevailed and the rest of the ODI matches were called off and England left for home. It would have been humanely impossible for England to carry forward the tour with the gloom surrounding the nation following the dastardly act by some cowards. There was a possibility that the Tests would go on as planned. After days of deliberation and soul-searching the England team has decided that they would return to the shores of India to play the proposed Test series and in this way help the wounded nation to move on. The one man who deserves credit for rallying his team around and persuading them to travel to India is undoubtedly skipper Kevin Pietersen. He once again showed that he has great man-management skills and persuasion skills as he had demonstrated earlier in getting Harmison out of his ODI retirement. It is a well known fact that Harmison is a reluctant tourist and in the wake of bomb blasts he would have never looked forward to come and play in India but he should be lauded for showing the change in his attitude and coming to India.

 

England View:
The English team management had decided to call up Amjad Khan a fast medium pacer to boost up their pace attack and Adil Rashid to back the spin department. He will travel with the team to India but will not be added to the squad officially. Stuart Broad is sure to miss the first test at Chennai due to hamstring injury. The squad has two wicketkeepers in the form of Tim Ambrose and Matt Prior and who will keep the wickets is till now undecided. Of the two Ambrose has shown to be a better keeper and even though he had scored a match winning century against New Zealand earlier this year his batting has been fragile. The showing of Matt Prior during the ODI series might not have inspired much confidence in the English camp. So the battle for the wicket keeping spot will most probably continue to the last minute.

 

The openers are going to be Cook and Strauss but the next few spots are going to be major headache issues for the English team management. The question of who is going to come at no. 3 is going to make the English team management worried. The toss up will be between Owais Shah and Ian Bell. There is also every possibility that KP will move up the order to provide the explosion that is needed at the top. In such a scenario Ian bell will most probably win the race ahead of Shah to the final XI. Flintoff will walk in at his favourite position at number five and Collingwood at number six. With the wicket keeping issue to be sorted out the bowling attack might comprise of Anderson, Harmison, Flintoff and Monty Panesar.

 

England squad for the two-Test tour of India:
KP Pietersen (capt, Hampshire), TR Ambrose (wkt, Warwickshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), IR Bell (Warwickshire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), PD Collingwood (Durham), AN Cook (Essex), A Flintoff (Lancashire), SJ Harmison (Durham), MS Panesar (Northants), MJ Prior (wkt, Sussex), OA Shah (Middlesex), AJ Strauss (Middlesex), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire), A Khan (Kent).

 

AU Rashid (Yorkshire) travels with the squad as back-up

 

Indian View:
On contrary to the situation in English camp the Indian camp is upbeat. The final XI, it seems, will pick up by itself for the first test in Chennai. The only change that one will see in the final XI that played against Australia in Nagpur will be inclusion of Yuvraj Singh in the place of retired Sourav Ganguly. Left-arm slow bowler Pragyan Ojha, who has yet to play a Test after five one-day appearances, is the only new face in the squad as a back-up to frontline spinners Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra. He replaces seamer Rudra Pratap Singh.

 

The openers of the Indian team Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag are in the form of their lives as they ran amok against Australia. Gautam Gambhir, back after serving a ban of one test against Australia, is the ideal support for the explosive Sehwag and as if Sehwag’s explosion is not enough he too can play some aggressive shots that can stun the bowler. The next man to follow will be Rahul Dravid. His reputation has taken a beating is the last one year and will be under great pressure. Rahul Dravid scores well when he plays the ball on its merit. For some time now he has tried to be very aggressive and when that fails he has tried to be very defensive and that would be one of the reasons that he has failed. This might be one of those last chances where he can redeem himself.

 

The next couple of batsman Sachin Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman are also timing the ball well that they need not worry about where their next runs would come from. The spot that Yuvraj Singh is likely to occupy would be the number five or six and after watching Rahul Dravid the eyes of the critics would be on Yuvraj Singh as to see how he would perform and whether he would be able to claim the position for himself. With keeping in safe hands of skipper Dhoni the spin department will be manned by Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra and the pace department will be taken care by Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.

 

India squad: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, S Badrinath and Pragyan Ojha.