India v England 2008

[Leggie]

Harmsion - Somehow don't see him as a threat even though India batsmen die when it comes to bounce. Sehwag will be keen to get some wood over him after Harmison totally owned him with those deliveries rising outside off stump in the '06 tour. Anderson and Flintoff bowled superbly int he last tour and will be looking to continue that, I hear Anderson averages something like 13 with the ball in India However I think our bowling attack has also improve since last time, Shreesanth, Pathan and Munaf Patel (Who was in fine form in that series) were our bowlers then along with Bhajji. I think Zaheer, Ishant, Bhajji and Mishra sound more threatening then the previous lot do. However Pathan and Harbhajan bowled excellently in that series.

Batting wise, If I remember correctly the likes of KP and Flintoff were in good form during the series? It took some special bowling to get rid of them. For India once again there is no Sachin, However Sehwag is a better player now than he was then, Yuvraj has got somewhat worse, The rest is about the same - Now we have Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina (Who was a find in that series) and Gautam Gambhir - In fact the batting now looks better than then. Dhoni is not just a finisher as well anymore.

It will be interesting with captaincy as well, Aggressive V Aggressive Last time it was Dravid v Flintoff, Not saying that Flintoff wasn't aggressive its just that these two player (KP and MS) are probably the most agressive players in terms of mentality in both of these squads put together. Overall should be a cracker! Hoping to see some big scores such as 300+ this time round.

 

[.Mob]

Yeah, definitely, KP's unit looks a very tight knit bunch as are Dhoni's bunch too , it's going to be a great series.

 

[Leggie]

Lets just hope it lives up to the hype of the series between these two last year, That was fantastic.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Batting wise, If I remember correctly the likes of KP and Flintoff were in good form during the series?

Nah KP was pretty poor, only 2 50's, has never done it in the subcontinent in tests. Fred was class though, was his performance in that series that got him the captaincy for the ashes although that was obviously the wrong decision.

 

[SaiSrini]

We beat you at home in a 7 match series under Collingwood, I'm pretty sure we can give you a good run for your money in India, especially with Harmison and Flintoff in the side, and with KP as captain. Looking forward to it.

That was under Dravid's captaincy with all the seniors playing. We now have only Sachin in the ODI's and he too is taking a break for the first three ODI's. I feel you havent had a taste of the new India in the ODI's (you had a small taste in the T20 World Cup, and esp. Broad wont forget it!)

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 35 Seconds later...

Lets just hope it lives up to the hype of the series between these two last year, That was fantastic.

I hope so too. And I wish to see crowds at the stadium. Very disappointed to see the crowds not turn up for this Aussie test series (which was supposed to be high profile)

 

[icyman]

Its a pity that we do not have Piyush Chawla in the team for this series. He did bamboozle the English last time round.

 

[Leggie]

Yeah...I feel Bhajji and Chawla would be somewhat better as a pair.

 

[icyman]

Right you are Sanjay.
Cause I feel that Pragyan Ojah won't get a single game in the series.

 

[Leggie]

Mishra's got his wickets with turn most thus far. Whereas with Chawla, In England the wickets hardly turned, Yet he used his flight and variations to get top batsmen out. Therefore I reckon Chawla would be better than Mishra, I'm not downgrading Mishra or anything, I'm just saying that Chawla has some wood over England already and would probably be more successful on wickets that offer turn, and turn combined with his variations would be deadly, I'm also not saying that Mishra hasn't got any variations, It's just that he hasn't shown them yet.

 

[aditya123]

We beat you at home in a 7 match series under Collingwood, I'm pretty sure we can give you a good run for your money in India, especially with Harmison and Flintoff in the side, and with KP as captain. Looking forward to it.

Since the World Cup, we have been great in ODI cricket.We beat SA in Ireland,Australia in Australia,Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and Pakistan in India.
Notice the trend there, we`ve won most of them away as well.

The series we lost in England was very hard fought and it could have easily been in India`s favour had we not let Broad and Bopara get away at Old Trafford.
However, with Tendulkar rested for the first 3 ODIs, I feel that England might have a slight edge because of our batting not looking all that solid.

I still feel we need an anchorman there.At the moment I can only see Dhoni playing that role.Yuvraj`s form is crucial for India`s fortunes. If he fires, we will win quite easily. If he does not, the rest of the lineup does look shaky.
Raina,Sharma and Co. do not inspire a lot of confidence if we are in trouble or lose early wickets.

 

[Leggie]

Last time Yuvraj was the man. Hope he can regain that old form. When we lost a couple of wickets or so, Yuvraj would continue fighting, He was great to watch in that series.

 

[sohum]

I think we're being a little unfair to Yuvi. He's a proven match-winner. His one weakness is quality spin bowling... so I do not think he will have as much of trouble in this series.

 

[Leggie]

Watchya trying to say? Greame Swann will run through our batting line up like Mendis.

 

[karnog]

Well it won't be a bad thing if neither Anderson and Sidebottom get a game. Lol that would be stupid from Pietersen. Mind you i wonder how badly the standford game effected the English boys. The way Harmison bowled in his final over won't be a good thing.

 

[SaiSrini]

Raina is in very good form in the ODI's. Gambhir and Sehwag at the top are probably the best opening pair in international cricket right now. Rohit Sharma fails in those occasional games, but mostly he fires. Yuvraj is the big question but I dont think England spinners will trouble him much. Dhoni is as usual our reliable customer. If they play Yusuf, he can be highly dangerous if he gets into that mood.

I predict India to win 5-2.