This review is not on the Test series as such but on the recently concluded ODI series.
The recently concluded India-Pakistan series has drawn the attention of cricket lovers from all over the globe, esp after Pakistan thrashed India in the final Test after two dead matches in the 3-match series. Well, India held their nerve and showed their opponents the strength of their new found team. Yes, Pakistan did win the first one, but they had no answer to India’s display of power thereafter.
Ever since Dravid has been captain there seems to be a dominant force with the Indian batsmen, who seem to be able to chase any given target, and with capable hitters in the form of Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Dhoni and Irfan Pathan, it makes the uphill task all the easier. India did miss Harbhajan Singh, especially when Kartik was pummelled all over by the Pakistan batsmen in the first match, but they then reverted back to Tendulkar, who hasn’t stretched his arm much since Sehwag took over the part-time bowling role.
India had a huge boost in that Tendulkar regained his form where it mattered most, although their other opening batsman has been struggling to pile on the runs, but little did they miss the importance of a solid opening partnership, because they had Dravid coming in next - the cool customer. This guy very rarely loses his nerve, and he showed exactly this when he used his cool head to build solid platforms when wickets fell. Even if Dravid fell, Pakistan bowlers would get pummeled all over once again because they had Yuvraj and Dhoni coming in.
It has been numerous occasions that these have saved the day for India now, and these so called occasions continued to rise with these two batsmen scoring freely in almost all the matches. They are in such excellent form that even if they SLOG, luck seems to be on their side. The term slogging has been attached to Dhoni since he started his pinch-hitting, but the correct term should be controlled hitting. A batsmen who slogs rarely displays his footwork, but we saw a lot of it when it came to Dhoni, he tore the Pakistani attack apart.
India has also discovered a new allrounder in the name of Irfan Pathan, who showed his talent with both bat and ball. The guy can come in at any number and destroy the bowling to shreds. And India has an extra boost in the fact that Pathan is a very good swinger of the ball. Pathan along with the rising RP Singh had the Pakistani batsmen in all sorts as they fought to post decent totals. Although Pakistan did have a sole survivor in the form of Shoaib Malik. The guy came into the team as a bowler, but has developed into a great batsman over the years.
Expect India to crush England, in the coming series, and I hope they do, because England have been playing pathetic cricket ever since the Ashes, God knows how they managed to beat Australia.