One-up

India's emphatic win over Sri Lanka in the first One-Day International at Nagpur only tells how well the team has gelled together as a cohesive unit, in spite of the raging controversies splitting through Indian cricket. It was heartening to see Sachin Tendulkar at his belligerent best after a long time. Credit goes to him also for proposing Irfan Pathan's name for the No. 3 slot in the batting order. Pathan has been showing his prowess with the bat ever since his entry into international cricket and India should be able to develop him as a useful allrounder, as Pakistan has done with Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Malik. In fact, Pathan can very well mature into an Andrew Flintoff for Team India. In fact, with J.P. Yadav, M.S. Dhoni and Murali Karthik showing the potential to excel in more than one roles in the near future, India can really take on the cricketing world by storm. With Rahul Dravid already among the world's current best ODI batsmen, the return of Mohammad Kaif and Sourav Ganguly can only make India invincible. Consistency is the need of the hour.