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The second best ODI team in the world

The way this current India-Australia series is shaping up it seems that the second best ODI team in the World would be an Australian second XI! They are missing five first choice players in Clarke, Haddin, Lee, Bracken, and Hopes (six if you include Symonds) plus a near first choice in Ferguson and a back-up player in Paine. And now with Siddle and Henriques injured, they are further depleted. If you add in the fact that the two Davids (Warner and Hussey) haven't been picked, that's a full set of 12 players that could easily form a world beating team. And despite all this, the series score is at 2-2 against an Indian side that's missing only Zaheer Khan!

This also goes to show how far behind the Indian team is that they can't seem to overcome a virtual second XI from Australia and at home to boot. The biggest worry will be the lack of consistency and improvement shown by the younger players (with Praveen Kumar a notable exception). Raina, Rohit Sharma, Jadeja, Yusuf and Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Kohli, Uthappa, Sreesanth have all failed to kick on after impressive starts to their careers. The fact that they are all quite young means that there is still hope but they need to improve their temperaments and adaptability to be consistently successful. Hopefully they can do so by the time the World Cup rolls around.

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