Full 'n' Final

It is pretty obvious he hasn’t mastered the art of multiple personality and succumbed to Captainship over Batsmenship. Well, I hear voices from far distant that the Batsman in him is only good in Indian conditions. If this devil had played in his minds it is very tricky to get rid of it. However a stint in English county should save his career in the long run. Had he won the Final ODI with his captaincy he would have made great strides. Nevertheless these are still his early days for Captain Raina.

Overall this series has been mostly the tale of two batsmen for India Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Both the batsmen featured in the Top 3 run getters from both sides and the later lead the list. While the likes of Dhawan (69), Raina (82), Yusuf Pathan (42) and Badrinath (40) were big letdown. Considering Raina failed due to captaincy pressure and Badrinath failed to no confidence motion the duo are still lucky to have another go in the Test series.

Don’t have to mention the conditions far suited the bowlers and mostly everyone came up in flying colors. Mishra turned to be the pick but everyone including him failed to stop the Bravo blitz in the final ODI.

But there will be one man who must be boiling inside for not featuring in the Test squad. Guess I don’t have to mention his name. I’m confident somewhere down the line there will be an injury and he will be drafted into the squad right away. Even otherwise he has made a name for self to make it to the England tour. At times, I’m forced to assume if it’s the slyness of selectors to announce the Test Squad way before the commencement of the ODI series. This way the performance of ODI doesn’t force them to leave out Mukund or Vijay or Raina for Dhawan or Rohit Sharma. In this case for heaven sake Dhawan failed but the performance of Rohit Sharma should hurt their conscience.

After a while, come this Monday India will be playing in Whites. If not for Mother Nature Draw is an unlikely result (for the series) considering both teams are loaded with batsmen new to Test arena.

Known for slow starters and lack of warm up matches prior to the Test Series, won’t be too surprised if India starts 1 down. Despite missing out established pro’s, feeling confident that Dhoni’s men will win the Test Series (2-1).

As for as the First Test is concerned Raina will be a sure start, I’m positive Badri will come into picture sometime during the series. Per my intuition Badri will make best use of the limited opportunity and live up to the confidence the Captain and selectors have on him.

In my opinion, India is likely to field the following XI.

Abinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Ishanth Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra/Munaf Patel.

Bottomline: The team that is hungry for success has the edge over its counterpart.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover