India seek to burst England146;s bubble

According to team sources Ganguly will fill in the fifth bowler8217;s slot regularly on the seamer friendly tracks of England, which would offer the team more options to stage a balanced bowling attack.

Nodding agreement when asked if Sachin Tendulkar would be replaced with a specialist batsman, Ganguly echoed yet again that the seven-batsmen experiment, which is now the norm, would continue despite the failure of some of the batsmen in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.

The captain would get yet another opportunity to open the batting with Virender Sehwag and that would rightly bring VVS Laxman to the pivotal number three slot, from where the Indian innings could build itself to huge totals.

Coach John Wright showed confidence in his batsmen and said that quality and class don8217;t disappear overnight. 8216;8216;It8217;s just an innings away8217;8217;, he said.

Mohammad Kaif must be praying on those lines right now. Having failed in the last few matches, his place in the side has been questioned more than Laxman8217;s simply because Laxman has scored five one-day hundreds in the last one year. Yet a selector argued that Kaif8217;s place in the side is secure because he averages close to 35 at number seven which is commendable. Dravid believes that the setbacks the team has suffered in Sri Lanka and Holland were only due to lack of rhythm with the season having just begun. Ganguly calls it a mindset problem.

With England skipper Michael Vaughan keen on translating the confidence from Tests to the one-dayers, India will need to be ready to face a resurgent home side with all-rounder Andy Flintoff in the form of his life, scoring runs with ridiculous ease and bowling at a brisk pace to unsettle their batsmen.

Add another six feet and four inches of the world8217;s number one ranked fast bowler Steve Harmison, who has the gift of getting exaggerated bounce from a good length spot to that mix, and you have 20 decisive overs that could decide the course of the match.

Vaughan admitted he was pleased not having to run into Sachin Tendulkar in the one-day series but added in the same breath that even without him the team had world class batsmen who would pose a huge challenge to his young bowlers.

He hoped that they would not find their form and unleash their truckloads of experience and exciting talent against them in the series. But India8217;s greatest strength in one-dayers is also their biggest weakness. If their batsmen fail to fire, they fail to win.

In many ways this Indian team reminds one of the one-dimensional tennis player Goran Ivanisevic who, with only a booming serve, hoped to rule the hallowed grass at Wimbledon. It was only after he smoothed the edges of the other aspects of his game that he got to hold the trophy.

India need to add another facet to its one-day game if they are to succeed beyond just reaching finals. But they can take heart from the fact that England have never ever won a major one-day tournament in the past 29-year history of the abridged version of the game barring the Sharjah Champions Trophy in 1997-98.

This England team, though, could.

Coach Duncan Fletcher calls his team the 8216;Bubble8217; and controls access to the inner sanctum strictly. With ten wins off the last eleven Tests, England have truly benefited from this mantra. Fletcher has a wonderful eye for the smallest loophole in the opposition game-plan and he makes sure that he always makes them pay for it. Having failed to make the NatWest triangular final this summer will surely be something that Fletcher will use to motivate his players after the success in the Tests.

Since the 1999 World Cup India have won 10 of the 14 matches played between the two sides and with only very little separating them in the one-day arena, this series could be a thrilling appetiser to the ICC Champions Trophy.