Mumbai play Karachi

from the 8th through the 11th of September

The Mumbai Team - : Wasim Jaffer (capt), Vinayak Mane, Sahil Kukreja, Hiken Shah, Vinit Indulkar, Abhishek Nair, Omkar Gurav (wk), Avishkar Salvi, Rajesh Verma, Iqbal Abdulla, Vikrant Yelligatti, Prashant Naik, Ajinkya Rahane and Nilesh Kulkarni.

And on a tangential note, given the number of players being pulled from the domestic setup by the ICL, how competitive will the Ranji Trophy be this year?

And now, guard against complacency!

India play England in 7 ODIs following their series victory in the Tests. And I do not expect England to push India too hard - 7 ODIs are 7 ODIs too many for the English palate.

There may be the odd game when England will come hard at India, but I believe we have enough nous to overcome that.

The problem that I foresee is in the period following the ODI series.

India has had a tendency to go off the boil after a big series ( Test or ODI), especially when they have performed well.

This, coupled with the tendency of being slow off the blocks, does not augur well for us.

India plays the 20/20 World Cup in South Africa and despite 20/20 being a slog fest and India playing a relatively young team ( both in age and experience), the words "World" and "Cup" will ensure a media frenzy.

Heightened expectations, coupled with a touch of complacency and the inability to hit the ground running implies that I do not see India doing too well in the 20/20 World Cup.

And just as well ( what with Test Cricket being the real cricket and all that).

Given that, it will behoove us ( fans and players) to temper our reactions a touch and keep in mind the bigger challenges ahead - Pakistan and Australia beckon.

Test 3 Day 5 - India take the series 1-0

India win the inaugural Pataudi Trophy. Just like they won the inaugural Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

By the identical series scoreline.

Onto the ODIs then.

A question of Intent

or questionable intent?

Here is what I wrote after the Sachin-Rahul crawl fest at Cape Town.

"His imitation of the "Strokeless Wonder" will be criticised by one and all, and understandably so. But what will fall through the cracks is the lack of ownership and responsibility shown by Dravid during this passage of play.Given that Sachin was not stroking the ball, not taking the initiative,"pottered and scratched, padded and swiveled, nudged and tapped and the Indian innings came to a standstill'", what was Dravid doing in the meanwhile?For a batsman who was well set, the onus was on him to take the initiative. As the captain of the team , it was his responsibility to take the initiative. As a senior member of the side, it was his duty to take the initiative. And he fell short on all three counts.Watching Sachin scratch around brought back memories of Bangalore 2004 and Mumbai 2005. A once great batsman unable to battle his inner demons.But watching Rahul play the way he did was the clearest example of "processes" gone bad!!"

And today,

R Dravid c Strauss b Collingwood 12 (96b 1x4 0x6) SR: 12.50

this, when India is leading the poms by 319 runs in the first innings.

Test 3 Day 3 - No Follow On

England are precariously placed at 326/9, trailing India by 338 runs. And there is some talk of India enforcing the follow on.

IMHO, That is a big NO-NO.

If India gets the last English wicket in the first half hour tomorrow, India should target to bat such that they get about 8 overs before tea ( including time lost for change of innings) to have a go at England.

Hypothetically, that gives India anything between 40-50 overs to look at a score that is out of Englands reach, anything between 470-530.

Two things will be achieved by this
1. The match will be completely, totally put out of England's reach.
2. The wicket will get a further 40-50 overs to bake under the sun.

And it will give India 4 sessions and a bit to get 10 English wickets.

Let us not forget that we have a series to win, and England must not be given any hope at all. Remember also that there is an ODI series to follow with a lot of the English cast remaining the same.