England XI v Mumbai XI: 50-over a side Tour Match, Mumbai
The Englishmen are already here. They came in quietly but were not missed by many watchers other than I. Therefore, I now open my eyes to the new set of visitors among us.
This England team is led by Kevin Pietersen. Not since the days of Botham has such a mercurial figure captained the England cricket team. Botham is known more for his performances as a player than remembered for his captaincy skills or the results thereof. However, Kevin Pietersen is already showing a natural flair for leadership and acumen for winning matches as captain. That, is a little different from Botham.
Today, while the fourth and final test match between India and Australia took an interesting twist on day four, England registered an easy win over a Mumbai XI selection in a 50-overs a side match. Flintoff, Shah and Bell have shown early tour promise as regards batting, with Flintoff recording an unbeaten century - 100* to be exact. Anderson showed good form with the ball.
The detailed fixtures are as follows -
TIMINGS
All day matches, except test matches, will start at 9.00 AM Indian Standard Time (IST) and 3.30 GMT.
(IST - Indian Standard Time = GMT + 5.30)
Day/Night matches will commence at 2.00 PM IST and 8.30 GMT.
Test matches will commence at 9.30 AM IST or 4.00 AM GMT
TELECAST AND WEBCAST
All international matches will be available on Neo Sports (TV and Web) and Cricketnirvana.com (Webcast).
INDIA SQUAD ( 1-3 ODIs )
MS Dhoni - Captain and Keeper
Virender Sehwag - Vice-captain, RH Opening bat, Off spin
Gautam Gambhir - LH Opening bat
Harbhajan Singh - Off spin, RH lower order better than tonker
Zaheer Khan - Left arm fast, RH lower order tonker
Virat Kohli - RH Bat
Pragyan Ojha - left arm orthodox spin, LH lower order bat
Munaf Patel - RH Fast, RH lower order tonker
Yusuf Pathan - Off spin, RH Floating bat
Suresh Raina - LH Bat
Ishant Sharma - RH hot liquid pace, RH lower order tonker
Rohit Sharma - RH Middle order, Off spin
RP Singh - Left arm fast, RH lower order non-tonker
Murali Vijay - RH Opening bat
Yuvraj Singh - Left arm middle order bat, Orthodox, left arm spin.
ENGLAND ODI SQUAD
Kevin Pietersen - Captain, RH middle order, Off spin
Ian Bell - RH floating order Bat
Alastair Cook - LH Opening bat
Owais Shah - RH floating order bat
Matt Prior - Keeper, RH middle-order power bat
Luke Wright - RH attacking bat, RH medium pace
Ravi Bopara - RH bat, RH medium pace
Stuart Broad - LH lower order bat, RH fast
Paul Collingwood - RH middle order bat, RH medium pace
Andrew Flintoff - RH lower order bat, RH fat bowler
Samit Patel - Left arm orthodox spin, RH middle order
Graeme Swann - Off spin, RH lower order bat
James Anderson - RH fast, RH lower order tonker
Steve Harmison - RH fast, RH lower order tonker
Ryan Sidebottom - Left arm fast, LH lower order tonker
ENGLAND TEST SQUAD
Kevin Pietersen - Captain, RH middle order, Off spin
Ian Bell - RH floating order Bat
Alastair Cook - LH Opening bat
Owais Shah - RH floating order bat
Tim Ambrose - Keeper, RH middle-order power bat
Matt Prior - Keeper, RH middle-order power bat
Andrew Strauss - LH opening bat
Ravi Bopara - RH bat, RH medium pace
Stuart Broad - LH lower order bat, RH fast
Paul Collingwood - RH middle order bat, RH medium pace
Andrew Flintoff - RH lower order bat, RH fat bowler
Graeme Swann - Off spin, RH lower order bat
James Anderson - RH fast, RH lower order tonker
Steve Harmison - RH fast, RH lower order tonker
Ryan Sidebottom - Left arm fast, LH lower order tonker
Monty Panesar - Left arm orthodox spin, LH lower order non-tonker
India's test squad is to be announced.
Noteworthy, England just has a captain. There isn't an appointed vice-captain.
Both touring teams are slim - just 15 strong. It is very likely the support staff will be three times the number, but this is worth observing by teams prone to carry passengers along with them on tour and at home.
INDIA VS ENGLAND STATS
Test Matches Statsguru
ODIs Statsguru
It is evident from those figures that India has only a slight edge at home over England.
There has been much said before the series, and not all of it fair. But this is time to set aside politicking and play a good game. Winning with elan, as everyone will tell you, is one of the best politicking strategem.
Freddie Flintoff's been pedalling along on a people-winning track. Some press clips which sound good -
PRESSQUOTES
"India possibly are the best team in the world at the moment. From my point of view and from the team’s point there is a desire within the group to do well."
One cannot deny the subtle shifting of pressure onto the home team, just as one cannot deny the grace reflecting from the statements.
"India has its own culture and you’ve got to embrace it. It’s something which is to be enjoyed."
Or the message slipped in here to his teammates who may baulk at noisy crowds. We know it is no longer a secret for England are watching television in India, so we'll tell them - there aren't the kind of crowds anymore which pumped up Freddie back then. So breathe easy first-timers.
You can easily see that Freddie Flintoff is a popular one among the spectators here.
"I actually wanted Ganguly who is retiring to score a hundred at Nagpur"
They've been watching the matches on TV and picking up some quick tips as we'll see later. Anyway, Ganguly is a fellow Lancastrian.
"It’s a shame Sachin won’t be there for the first three games. I enjoy playing against him. He’s the greatest I’ve ever bowled to. You want to play against people like that. You want to test yourself. He is someone I’ve enjoyed watching and growing up."
This is disorienting so soon after Gilly, Pricky and Australia. But I guess this is a harmless one...an honest personal view about a fellow cricketer. The senior member of the visiting team is making the right noises - he did promise to be a help to KP.
Ian Bell joins in with killing the hosts softly with syrup - his take on Zak's spell cast on him - "It’s one of the best I have faced in my career. He thoroughly deserved the man of the series award.”
In a different vein, Sidebottom and Swann are confident of doing well here - while one is banking upon his MRF Academy experience to quickly settle in, the other is heartened by Krazy feats on TV.
The pressquotes in full.The Hindu
We have seen in the recent Stanford extravaganza that sweet and syrupy can quickly ferment to stomach churning hard toddy!
4 comments:
sb, eng should be more unpredictable. even they don't know which side will turn up for the game. the one with kp and af firing, or the t20 bargain deal.
I'll take them more seriously than Australia. That sounds silly, but conveys the picture.
1) They are doing well under KP
2) They are atypically aggressive - it has been a while when an aggressive England team has toured these parts
3) They could be hurting from wounds gained elsewhere and will come out looking for a fight.
India can stop them in their tracks, but it will take some doing. For starters, they are better players of spin thanks to all the spinning sons of NRIs in their ranks.
If Monty was the son of an NRI last time around, this time he has Boapara and Samit Patel to give him company. Where's Shah from?
The last time India went balle balle on Monty - this time he and other sons of NRIs must be treated as members of England team, for that's what they are - Englishmen. No poosie-poosie, cootchie-cootchie or balle-balle son of India stuff. Let them feel the heat...even if it is a winter heat.
India will be troubled by England who have both better ability to play spin (if they have the right men in the squad) and can bowl good spin to India unlike the Aussies. And that, as we know by now, is today's India's achilles heel - they can't play spin too well. Remember Mendis? Krejza?
Some smart selection will have to be done.
Sunny called for dropping Dravid. damn...I'm so tempted to retain him to counter spin along with Sachin and VVS.
the old boy's club wants rd out. and he's known it for a long while. smg, colonel, bhogle, the whole lotta them. mumbai wanted rd out when he overshadowed srt.
And they suggest Rohit ahead of many many. why not Vijay, or any of the others. Rohit has only just scored his first Ranji hundred. I hope he scores many more and for India in tests, but he has to earn it...not old-boyed into the team.
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