Off Stump

To borrow a filmy dialogue, "Jiska dar thaa wohi hua". India had gone into the series with a bunch of their top players coming off a long break and it showed. Strange irony that three of them suffered during the match (though Gambhir and Tendulkar through no fault of theirs). Zaheer's fitness is disappointing again and even though fast bowlers generally tend to be more injury-prone, he seems to be the most across his peers. How well he recovers will be a big key to the rest of the series though I like Dhoni's attitude of "it gives someone else a chance to be a hero". Great statement from a captain and coming from Dhoni you can be sure that he truly believes it. England though were fantastic and arguably even if India weren't afflicted in the ways they were, they would still be down 0-1. Prior and Pietersen were magnificent and Broad and Anderson (in the 2nd innings) were outstanding too. One little stat demonstrates the difference between the sides nic

Brilliant article by one of my favourite writers (very glad she is part of the Cricinfo editorial staff now). Sharda Ugra's piece on the what makes a true Test cricket aficionado felt very close to heart :-) On a side note, its a pity more women don't follow the game and write about it. Like in any other area, they bring a unique perspective, one which many men (even if they feel passionately and emotionally about the game) are unable to express quite as well.....

A couple of nice pieces of subtext to the upcoming India-Eng series - 1) Its interesting how little the two teams have changed in terms of personnel since the last time they met in England and 2) The two captains who provided much needed steel to struggling teams at the turn of the millenium will both be in the commentary box for this series.

Much like the world of men's tennis, the battle for #1 status in Test match cricket is well and truly on. And the two biggest contenders in India and England take on each other in what should be a fascinating series (weather permitting of course as always in blighty ;-)). The South Africans would probably object to this but I think that at the moment they are in the position that Federer is, i.e. will always be there and thereabouts but unable to make the final push. Primarily I think their problem is the lack of a reliable third seamer (India and England have that problem too to some degree) but more importantly (at least until Imran Tahir proves himself capable or otherwise) the lack of a world class spinner. At full strength, the top 6 batters of all three teams are probably on par, with India maybe a notch ahead simply by dint of the wealth of experience in all conditions. Ironically, its the batting (and the fact that India will not be at full strength for at least half the