Striking A Winning Note

Team India has settled scores with a vengeance against Pakistan in the one-day series, after the shameful surrender to the western border rivals in the final Test. The series has seen young faster bowlers Rudra Pratap Singh and Shathakumar Sreesnath proving to be more than a handful for the Pak batsmen, fresh from a thumping series triumph against the exuberant Englishmen on a high after bagging the Ashes after the proverbial ages. It was encouraging to see the Indians featuring four medium pacers in their final eleven on the Pakistani pitches, which were too heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen, with the exception of Multan. Considering the experimentation and innovation mode the current Team India think-tank is known to be in, one really expected to see Ramesh Power, who has created a niche for himself in hitting useful cameos in the domestic circuit, to have a got a look-in with the bat as well in the final one-dayer. As far as batting is concerned, it is an immense relief to see Sachin Tendulkar back in form. Rahul Dravid has been the wall as always, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is getting rather boringly consistent with his in extended dashing batting. However, the series has been truly a graduation of sorts for Yuvraj Singh, who has shown amazing consistency with the willow, something which has unfortunately been so uncharacteristic of him down the years. With Gautam Gambhir, and especially, Mohammad Kaif failing to make a mark with the bat, under-19 lads like Gaurav Dhiman and Cheteshwar Pujara may well get a look-in in the home series against England. Suresh Raina’s bowling credentials should be tried out more. His Uttar Pradesh teammate Mohammad Kaif, who happened to be a more-than-useful spinner at the junior levels, was hardly given a bowl at the top level, without any valid reason. Rahul Dravid should not repeat the same mistake with Raina now, who shows all the potentials to be a match-winning super-sub.