I've been away for a while but wow, what a series this is going to be. Don't let the Indian impotency from 3 years ago fool anyone or England's success in India...these are terribly different circumstances.
No longer is India carrying the carcasses of Tendulkar, Dravid and co. This is a new generation of batsmen willing to take bowlers on, young, fit and with sharp reflexes.
England too are affected...but in a bad way, Pietersen is no longer around and neither is that number 3 batting rock of Trott. Cook is out of form and under severe pressure, not to mention a tradition of dying, slow pitches which will hamper England's swing and benefit India's spin and batting.
My starting XI for England would have to be:
1. Cook (C)
2. Robson
3. Ballance
4. Bell
5. Root
6. Ali
7. Prior WK
8. Stokes
9. Broad
10. Jordan
11. Anderson
12th man and very unlucky to miss out Plunkett. Stokes is a great choice I think, he can bat well and take wickets when it counts. He's a cricketer on the rise and adds balance to a team that so needs it.
I had to make do with the England squad but if I had my way, I would have picked a specialist spinner, ALi is new to int. cricket and already has so much pressure on his slender shoulders, he doesn't need the added headache of an Indian batting line up that can slaughter him. He needs to fully focus on his batting, wherein lies his strength.
With India, I think the batting line up pretty much picks itself and there's no doubt a lot will rest on how good Kohli is and their openers.
The bowling is, as usual, a real weak point, there was a time when India could pick from at the very least, 2 or 3 truly world class spinners but in my personally opinion, outside of Ashwin, who himself is average, there isn't much for India to pick from.
Its so stupid how he tries to put down the newly installed drainage system just because it negates the 'so-called home advantage' for England that was driven by moisture on the pitch/ground. For him, it seems like all he is concerned about in the advantage for England players. What about people who pay the ticket and come to watch a game? Just because the water/moisture is all absorbed, Trent Bridge/Lords, etc. is not going to become Wankhede/Eden Gardens.
