Ganguly — left-handed compliments to the bowlers

Ganguly and Tendulkar have not opened together in One-Day Internationals in England. But with 300-plus appearances between them they should have little problems in adapting to the peculiarities of the conditions there.

Ganguly showed his latent class and character on the 1996 tour of England, overcoming trenchant criticism and six years of exile from international cricket to score a century on Test debut and following it up with another in his second Test.

It was on the England stage that one also saw early glimpses of Tendulkar’s greatness when he rescued India from impending doom with unbeaten knock of 119. He was then only 18. A season with Yorkshire as a star pro only enriched his cricketing erudition.

What is the reserve strength?

India’s hopes depend heavily on the Tendulkar-Ganguly starts. But what is the option in case of injuries to either of the two? Ajay Jadeja, who has a pivotal role in the middle-order, should be the logical choice in an emergency opener.

Before the elevation of Ganguly as opener, the Tendulkar-Jadeja duo averaged 59.77 from 22 ODIs — the highest in the annals of limited-overs cricket. With five century partnerships and seven 50-plus stands from 22 outings, they were right there among the best.

Jadeja has also done well while opening twice with Ganguly, adding 131 runs in one of the innings.

Not much hope for the others

It is doubtful if any of the other openers in the probables would even get a look-in. VVS Laxman has the staying powers for the longer version of the game. But a strike rate of 43.00 and an average of 12.40 in ODIs does him little credit. Interestingly, Laxman has never opened the innings in any of the seven ODIs he has played. Which means India have two one-day openers who are middle-order batsmen in Tests and a Test opener who is a middle-order bat for one-dayers!

The other probables, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Devang Gandhi and Gagan Khoda, do not have much hope of breaking into the final 15. The much-maligned Khoda, however, has done well scoring hundreds in both Wills and Deodhar Trophies. With a strike-rate of 82.36 in the domestic one-day season, he stands better even in comparison to the hard-hitting Khurasia, who ended the season with a strike-rate of 76.70.

If India has to be on a song in the World Cup, much will depend on the Tendulkar-Ganguly jugalbandi Can they produce the magic?

Current opening Partnerships

Opening wicket parnters Runs For I No Avge HS 100 50 0

S Ganguly & S Tendulkar 2664* Ind 53 2 52.24 252 8 11 1

A Sohail & S Anwar 2650* Pak 68 0 38.97 173 3 19 2

A Gilchrist & M Waugh 745 Aus 20 0 37.25 146 2 5 0

M Atherton & A Stewart 716 Eng 17 0 42.12 112 2 4 0

N Knight & A Stewart 612 Eng 13 0 47.08 165 2 3 0

S C’paul & S Williams 539 WI 10 1 59.89 200* 2 1 0

P Simmons & S Williams 510 WI 12 0 42.50 132 2 1 0

G Kirsten & M Rindel 431 SA 9 0 47.89 190 1 3 1

A Campbell & G Flower 429 Zim 12 0 35.75 121 1 3 0

S Campbell & S Williams 326 WI 13 0 25.08 98 0 2 0

G Flower & C Wishart 272 Zim 11 0 24.73 82 0 2 1

M Atherton & N Knight 252 Eng 6 1 50.40 132 1 1 0

Ijaz Ahmed & S Afridi 194 Pak 3 0 64.67 109 1 1 0

G Flower & N Johnson 194 Zim 3 0 64.67 101 1 1 0

A Brown & Knight 179 Eng 5 0 35.80 114 1 0 0

S Anwar & Salim Elahi 167 Pak 5 0 33.40 60 0 2 0

C Lambert & P Wallace 148 WI 6 0 24.67 41 0 0 0