The number one Test team, India playing as underdogs in England - Opinion
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Test match rankings, but their start to the English tour didn’t turn out to be a good one. The visitors failed to make an impression in their only practice match against Somerset, at the County Ground, Taunton
on Sunday, July 17, 2011.
Bowing first, the Indian team was unable to cause many problems for the home side. They conceded 425 runs and managed to pick up just three wickets in the innings.
Somerset finally declared the innings, but the Men in Blue were unable to bat well on a good batting pitch. The team scored just 224 runs and were all-out after an unimpressive batting display.
The only positive thing for the Indian team was a spectacular century from promising young batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SK-Raina-c2539. The stylish left-hander remained unbeaten on 103 runs, but lacked support from the other end.
Apart from Raina’s innings, there was no other batsman in the entire Indian line-up to reach even the thirties. This would be a big concern for the number one team, as they won’t get any other chance to get some practice and will head into the first Test
of the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 on Thursday, July 21.
Although there were some key players missing from the practice game, India had a very strong batting line-up with the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yuvraj-Singh-c98364 all featuring in the match.
They were expected to set an example for the youngsters, but failed to live up to the expectations of their fans and the management. Master Blaster, Tendulkar only managed 26 runs in his unimpressive outing and gave his wicket away to part-time seamer, Craig
Meschede.
The veteran player played and missed at quite a few balls and finally edged one ball to the hands of the wicketkeeper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jos-Buttler-c1733, who didn’t make a mistake behind the stumps.
Dravid, who was the only Indian batsman to score a century in the team’s tour to the Caribbean, also failed to make most of the good batting conditions. He collected 17 runs in his short stay at the crease and became a victim of South Africa’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Charl-Willoughby-c1231,
who picked up six wickets in the innings for Somerset.
India’s player of the tournament in the ICC World Cup 2011, Yuvraj Singh seemed to have no clue of the swinging ball, as he was caught plumb in front of the stumps by Willoughby’s in-dipper. The flamboyant left-handed batsman failed to open his account and
will be likely to sit out for the first match of the series.
The visitors depended on the experience of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Somerset-c843 batsmen to pile plenty of runs on the
board.
India will be looking forward to a better show against England with the return of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Harbhajan-Singh-c61453, who all skipped the practice game. However, they will be under immense pressure to retain their number one Test ranking.
The Men in Blue have been performing consistently well on home soil, but their weaknesses have been exposed on foreign tours in both the batting and bowling departments.
On the other hand, England have been doing exceptionally well on home and foreign soil and are eying the number one spot in the longest version of the game. They will be ready to make life extremely difficult for the visitors in the upcoming series.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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