PAYBACK

Team India will have revenge on their mind and heart  when the five-match ODI series against England begin with the opener at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad tomorrow.Just a few months after the horrible unforgettable  summer  which saw the former getting thrashed and the latter being crowned Number One Test side in the world , INDIA will be pretty desperate to prove that they are the world champions in 50-50 cricket.

Things are going to be pretty different this time around.Its too earlier predict , but things wont be that easy for England playing against India at home ,with their fanatical fans team india are a very different proposition.

India are the current World Champions at the 50-over format & have a very formidable home record with only the Australians in 2009 & 2007 defeating them in their last 13 home ODI series. But that said the team played most of the matches with a full-strength side. New Zealand were an easy opposition.The side didn’t have a batsman who looked comfortable against spin, plus with a couple of inexperienced youngsters in their side they were no match for team india .

England never had a record playing in the subcontinent.Their  last two tours have seen an aggregate score of 11-1 in favour of India with the 2008/09 series ending 5-0.Because of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai , two matches were  abandoned saving them from further humiliation.One who had watched that series will tell you that they were thoroughly outplayed in every department . Moreover, they haven’t won an ODI series in India for about 25 years. But  these days things are not the same.England are a stronger unit & made of sterner stuff with a good number of exciting young emerging talents thrown into the mix,thanks to the English selectors who possess a considerable amount of foresight. With convincing home series victories over Sri Lanka and India already secured under the captaincy of Alaistar cool Cook the future looks bright for this  side filled with young blood and excitement.  But this tour of India will be probably  their toughest assignment yet and we will learn a lot about just how far England have come by the end of it.  With their weakened bowling including lack of decent spin options excluding the outstanding Graeme Swann, I feel India have the edge in what should be an competitive & close series




Following the test and ODI series at home England look to concentrate on creating a specialist side for both formats of the games , respectively.,Clearly the NO 1 rank in ODIs in on their mind.On that note , this series should give us a good idea about whether England's masterplan for world domination in every form of cricket is on course, but this time around its unlikely to be one-way traffic.But record books will tell you that  England have struggled in India, winning only one of their last 13 One Day Internationals on indian pitches .And considering the fact that England wont be able to enjoy the services of a few of their top players, any little success enjoyed in this series will be considered as a  real statement of intent from Ali Cook’s men.





Yes…The Indian team is still struggling with injuries that seriously hampered their chances in England with the key players  Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel not fully recovered.But in my opinion  the young and inexperienced( using the term inexperienced might invite controversy since some of these guys have gained enough experience at international level) side, which will also be without Harbhajan Singh who was dropped, has enough arsenal to win in home conditions..In 2011 on  home turf team india-
played 14 ODIs
 won 12  1 tied
 this gives us enough cause to remember that they are World Champions in this format of the game
 

 INDIAN TEAM
You can expect the the team  to continue with Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane as openers after their impressive performances in England with the aggressive Gautam Gambhir, who is back for the first two ODIs at least, at no 3. and there is a chance he could be joined soon by a fit-again Virender Sehwag at the top of the order. Virat Kohli, who has been in fine form in the Champions League T20, will be at No 4 followed by Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni with Ravindra Jadeja as the bowling all-rounder.. He hit 107 in the last ODI in Cardiff & has continued his fine form in the Champions League playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with scores of 70 & 84 not out in the semi final.SURESH RAINA-He scored an incredible 84 in the 4^th ODI vs England.He has great natural ability and hits the ball incredibly hard.



While the batting looks solid despite missing several key players, the bowling will worry the think-tank.




Apart from Praveen Kumar, the pace bowling lacks experience with Sreenath Arvind, Umesh Yadav, R VInay Kumar and Varun Aaron in the ranks.Alot is expected from Ashwin , a lot has been spoken about his variations and usefullness in the shorter format of the game.He definitely will try to prove a point or two and that he is a better bowler than Harbhajan. India could well prepare turning tracks which will make things difficult for the English batsmen and the side will be looking at Trott and Pietersen to deal with the spin threat
How the bowlers fare against the English batting could well decide the fate of the first two ODIs after which the selectors will meet to pick the squad for the following games.



The Indian bowlers' inability to take wickets in England saw them go down rather tamely despite posting some handy totals and the visitors will take a lot of confidence from those performances.




England have several quality batsmen in their side and the return of Kevin Pietersen, who was dropped for the home series against India, makes the middle order look solid.





Skipper Alastair Cook will continue his role as the sheet-anchor at the top of the order with Craig Kieswetter looking to attack.
Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell also had a lot of success against Indians in England and the hosts would do well to chalk out specific plans for them.
England too are short on experience on the bowling front and the Indian batsmen will be looking to make the most of it.






With spearhead James Anderson rested and Stuart Broad injured, Tim Bresnan will lead the attack with Steve Finn and Jade Dernbach making up the attack while Grame Swann will be the lone specialist spinner and Samit Patel likely to play as the spinning all-rounder. Swann is undoubtedly the best spinner in the world currently but the Indians are fantastic players of spin.So it will be interesting to see if he can be able to trouble Indian batsmen after a good show on pitches which were spinner-unfriendly. Jade Dernbach is another  man who needs to be watched out. He has made himself a vital part of the England attack in the last year with his excellent array of slower balls. These variations will be used in the power plays & end of the innings, increasing his chances of a number of cheap wickets whilst the batsmen are looking to take advantage of the fielding restrictions.









Probable teams:
India: Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, R VInay Kumar, Umesh Yadav
England: Alastair Cook, Craig Kieswetter, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Steve Finn, Jade Dernbach.


WHAT CAPTAINS SAY-

COOK-

I don’t see any relation between what happened in England and what’s going
to happen out here. India are historically very strong at home, and we have
an extremely tough challenge on our hands. It’s a great opportunity for an
England side to play the world champions in their back yard.

DHONI-

We may have not been up to the mark in England, but the fact is that before
that tour, we won the game’s biggest prize, the World Cup. Our performances
over the past three seasons speak for themselves. I am convinced that it is
only a matter of time before we turn the tide.

WHAT ELSE YOU WILL SEE

New ODI rules. Dhoni said the five ODI’s “may not see reverse-swing”
due to the use of a new ball from each end. Counterpart Cook said “you
will see spin a lot earlier” during games. Rules stipulate that bowling
and batting powerplays must be completed between the 16th and 40th overs of
the innings.

You will notice three stars above the BCCI logo on India’s ODI shirts. They
denote euphoric wins in the 1983 and 2011 World Cups as well as the 2007
World T20.

TAKING the batting ,fieldind,and bowling line ups of both teams into account I feel it might be 3-2 England J