India are in England to play a four test series, and it should be the best competition in Tests in the recent times. There is always the factor of Sachin's 100th century looming in the background, but for once, this time, the press are not really obsessed with it. We did have a bench strength test at the Caribbean and i would say the whole bunch are something we should look forward to! The first test at Lord's will be a nervous encounter based on the fact that none of our 'Fab 3' have scored a century at the Mecca of Cricket and that will always be a force to reckon with when India bat the first innings. Also, we will definitely miss the Sehwag factor at the top of our batting and we have won lot of tests on Sehwag's blitz as an opener.
Despite all those, we have some interesting challenges to look forward to, Gambhir Vs Tremlett, Zaheer Vs Strauss and Harbhajan Vs Ian Bell. This should be the first time Gautam will have to take full responsibility as an opener, he always been happy to play his strokes in the shadow of Sehwag, but this time, he is the senior guy to guide the young Mukund. Dhoni will also have the predicament of choosing between Raina and Yuvi. Raina has used all his opportunity and proven everyone how capable he is while Yuvi has the entire world Cup performance in his Resume. I think Dhoni will go for Yuvi considering the fact that this might be the last chance in this test arena while Raina has all the time in this world as he is just 22. Ishanth is making all the right noises and is showing he ready to battle his demons out in the middle. His singular performance in the Caribbean pitches was a stand out and will be interesting to see how he takes on the swinging pitches in England.
On the whole this will be a very good competition and test of nerves for both the sides. I think India will lose their No 1 ranking only if they lose this series 2-0 and i dont think we are that bad to lose this series. It would have been great if it had been a 5 match series instead of the existing 4 match, but i have no complaints. I would really love to see India emerge victorious from this series but as i write this their practice game hangs at 91/6 chasing 425 from Somerset with all the accomplished batsmen in the hut barring Raina. Our Indian team has always been this way and i would not attach too much significance to failure in one innings.
Anyways we have an amazing competition and I am really eager to see this start.
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