India and Glory

On paper India has always had a brilliant lineup, but again how many times has India won overseas? We even used to falter against Zimbabwe when they had some quality players. Realistically speaking India should do well to reach the Semi-Finals, but again one inspired innings from John Davison could just knock India out of the tournament. If that happens I guess it’s time we just ban cricket. India has never been a brilliant fielding team, but with aging stars like Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar and Kumble, well I guess u can also add in guys like Sehwag, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh to this list. India effectively has very few good fielders. Some things that India should do to reach the Semi-Finals is that they never play the 2 passengers of the team, Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan. They should open with Sachin and Ganguly and its weird not to see one of the best opening combinations in ODI history not opening together. Also the ideal no. 3 would be Robin Uthappa. He is young and he is an aggressive batsman. He could effectively utilize the power plays. Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni should complete the middle order. The no. 7 is a very interesting position as he is the link between the top order and the tail. Dinesh Karthik would ideally suit in there as he can graft as well as play some good strokes. I guess India would go with 3 fast men and one spinner but I think if the pitches were similar to the ones when india visited a few years back, I guess they can play both Kumble and Harbhajan. Among the seamers, Zaheer looks the most convincing and though Agarkar has been there for ages, he still goes for too many runs and he can’t be trusted. Example would be the 1999 World Cup against both South Africa and Zimbabwe. The others will just be belted all over the ground on the flat tracks. As for Viru is considered, I guess he is lucky to be on an all expense paid trip to the West Indies.