Off Stump

In almost exactly eight months from today, the 2015 World Cup will kick off with India as defending champions for only the second time in the history of the tournament. Barring injury (unlikely given his track record and fitness), MS Dhoni will become the first Indian captain to lead his side into two world championships as the title holders. He will know very well that India struggled mightily the last time they were  defending a world title under his watch  and also the last time  the World Cup was held down under  (though the latter was years ago). He will also know that India don't have a huge number of matches before then to determine the final shape of the squad. That makes the upcoming short tour of Bangladesh and the 'A' team tour of Australia in July even more critical than these would be otherwise. Sandeep Patil and co have done an admirable job again (like  in the past ) and now its up to the groups of men selected to show that they deserve to be considered for

An edited version of this piece has been published on ESPNcricinfo here . December 22, 2013 was a sad day for world cricket. Cricketers like Graeme Swann not only bring their talents to the field but their attitude that conveys sheer joy at playing Test cricket is a much needed commodity. Especially in these days when young spinners are choosing to play the IPL over Test cricket (more on that some other time though). Jon Hotten is right in saying that he's the player the rebuilding England side will miss the most, but arguably world cricket will miss him almost as much. With Swann gone, Harbhajan and Vettori having completely faded away since 2011, and Saeed Ajmal and Rangana Herath (who're both nearly 37) not likely to last much longer, the next great (or even really good) Test match spinners are nowhere in sight. Most fans of the five day game would probably rate great fast bowling as the thing they like most followed by fine batsmanship. And its now wonder that in mos