India v England, ODI Series Preview…….

The longest bilateral One Day International series to date on English soil commences in a few hours time in the port city of Southampton. If the balance of power was difficult to gauge before the Test series, then it is even more so with the One Day series.

On paper, India are the superior side. They have had the better of England irrespective of personnel, especially in India and on neutral ground. In England, they beat England in 2002, and lost 1-2 in 2004 in the Nat west Challenge. England hold no terrors for India. However, in a game designed for the cameo match winning solo, England possess two of the world finest match winners in the modern day – Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. Its the kind of thing which makes One Day cricket a lottery. The number of close run chases decided by lucky outside edges should tell you a thing or two about the arbitrary nature of the contest. Cricketers try and cloak this arbitrariness with “whoever does well on the day will prevail” – a line that has been done to death, by everyone, from the Bangladesh captain against Zimbabwe to Sourav Ganguly before the World Cup Final.

This arbitrariness also allows pretty much the whole range of predictions to be made. From the English newspaper the Independent comes the prediction that the return of Andrew Flintoff and Ravi Bopara may just avert a whitewash. Further they say that anything better than 2-5 would be demonstrative of improvement in England’s ODI fortunes. Ian Chappell on the other hand finds both sides evenly matched and predicts that pace will be the decisive factor.

With Flintoff making a comeback, and with Tremlett, Anderson and Broad also likely to play, the English attack looks strong. Flintoff gives them the decisive edge in my view, because he can be the 5th bowler. India will try and make up the 5th bowlers overs from Yuvraj, Tendulkar and Ganguly. One out of Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar will play – not a daunting prospect for the Englishmen, especially on good English wicket. In Test Cricket, India have been hurt over the years due to a limited bowling attack. While One Day Cricket provides batsmen greater scope for affecting the result in ODI games compared to Tests, fielding – another area where India have traditionally been behind the curve also has a greater bearing on events. The top Indian ODI batsmen – Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Yuvraj, supported by the peerless Mahendra Dhoni (his record as a specialist wicketkeeper batsman in ODI cricket is unmatched in ODI history) have overcome this handicap repeatedly and successfully.

Chappell is probably right though, in damp conditions, especially with dew expected to be a factor under lights, England pace edge – provided by Andrew Flintoff as the 5th bowler, might play a important role. The teamwork from the Test series will become vitally important, especially when India are in the field.

The rejuvenated Ganguly and the peerless Tendulkar will return at the top of the innings for India as the captain announced. This leaves the number three slot open for Gambhir, Karthik, Utthappa or Sharma. My guess is that Dinesh Karthik will bat at number 3 in the Southampton game, all though Gautam Gambhir has been amongst the runs. Seperating Ganguly and Yuvraj in the line up also gives India the opportunity have left-right combinations most of the time unless both fail. It also gives India to opportunity to play 5 bowlers. Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla may both play if that is the case. If not, then Gambhir will in all probability join Dinesh Karthik in the eleven. Karthik would then bat at 6, while Gambhir will bat at 3.

The bowling offers more intriguing choices. Munaf Patel has returned to the squad. This puts RP’s place under pressure in my view, because he has the tendency to be mercurial. He looks innocuous for a large part of his spell and goes for plenty of runs, but ends up taking crucial wickets. Patel offers greater control and has been Indias best ODI bowler in the last 12 months or so. However, it may be difficult to blood Patel straightaway, and Agarkar, Zaheer and RP may be India’s seam bowling line up.

It remains to be seen whether India’s ODI side can extend its unbeaten record after the World Cup (series wins v Bangladesh and South Africa). What is at stake here is much more than an ODI series victory. A ODI defeat in England will mean that there will be brickbats at the ready when the players step out of the airport in India – a great Test triumph forgotten.