"Team India"

Being a die-hard fan of the Indian cricket team, how can I not reserve a post entirely for the team blue.

Team India plays its first match tomorrow and if my predictions have to come true, they have to get into the momentum from the very beginning. The warm-up matches provided the much required boost and India should look at repeating the performances in the opening game tomorrow. They have to take this match very seriously as we all know that Bangladesh is very capable of springing a few surprises ...

Having played quite a bit of cricket myself mostly as a captain (talking about gully cricket), I will use this space to pen down my strategy for Team India. Let me start with the preferred playing eleven (in batting order) -

1. Saurav Ganguly
2. Robin Uthappa
3. Virendra Sehwag
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Rahul Dravid
6. Yuvraj Singh
7. MS Dhoni
8. Ajit Agarkar
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Anil Kumble
11. Munaf Patel

No surprises here, I guess .. Also in terms of strategy and reasons for picking this eleven here are a few points -

• I am playing Sehwag as an all-rounder and he cannot be wasted in the middle order. If he is playing, he needs to open or at least come in one down. However if he fails in more than 2 games, I would bring in Pathan as a replacement and make him bat at No. 3. I repeat No. 3 and not in the late middle order.
• I will never play Kumble and Harbhajan both in the same game. Kumble will be my first choice and only if he looks unimpressive, I will bring in Harbhajan into the eleven. Tendulkar, Yuvraj & Sehwag should always bowl at least 10-15 overs between them in all games.
• I will never drop Uthappa. He has shown a lot of promise and courage in the last few games and he can provide us with an explosive start especially on the pitches here.
• It is sad that Sreesanth did not find a place in my first eleven but mainly because Zaheer, Agarkar & Munaf have been awesome in the last season. Zaheer has clearly been the best. Agarkar looks a lot more mature and keeps getting early wickets. Munaf has rightly sacrificed his speed and has developed into a very consistent & economical bowler. Sreesanth was good in the last few games and should be brought in case of an injury or total loss of rhythm in any of the top 3 bowlers.
• I will never play around with my batting order. I will always stick to the batting order above especially Nos 4 to 7. I don't mind if both Sehwag & Pathan flop and Karthik is brought in at No. 3 or if we need to accelerate batting second, Dhoni is promoted but in most circumstances it will be good to stick to the same batting order. It may mean that you won't have any surprises for your opponents but I'd rather have my batsmen know their role & position well in advance esp. during the world cup. We can leave the mind games department to Ganguly who anyways will be out there in the field since the very beginning and can change his gloves, bat, locket, rings, hairstyle or whatever whenever he wishes :)

Many have commented that this is the best ever Indian team to compete in a world cup. I totally agree and even though the last team was almost equally good, in my opinion, the 3 most important differences since last time are - maturity of Yuvraj as a batsman, presence of Dhoni in the squad, Tendulkar & Dravid coming in at No. 4 & 5.

Team India looks all set to go all the way. I hope they have a good start tomorrow and carry the momentum in the next 10 games. My mantra for the team would be - "Winning is not everything, it is the only thing!".

Good luck to Team India !!