Shorter format, longer thoughts for Dravid

As Rahul Dravid and his England counterpart Paul Collingwood set sail for the one-day series, they would sincerely hope that five days hence their boat won8217;t rock in the middle of the series.

On Monday Dravid8217;s grip on the Trophy at the time of unveiling was firm, and his intentions of a clean sweep firmer. But he understands the uncertain nature of one-day cricket and the Indian team8217;s patchy form in this version, and how his famed pace-bowling heroes were rudely shaken in the 50 overs of warm-up two days before.

The Indian think-tank was quick to act with the anti-dote; team meetings were centred around it and Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach, rearranged their length-piece to suit the shorter version.

Dravid says his team has done the homework. 8220;We are sort of switching from Test mode to one-day mode. From the bowlers8217; point of view we need to bowl a different length here. Even from the batsmen8217;s point of view, what type of shots we want to play8230; So yes we have had a discussion about the bowling in the team meetings but at the end of the day it8217;s about implementation. I think we did it well during the Test series, and we hope to do it in the one-dayers as well.8221; Prasad has insisted that his three pacers bowl a length, not short but what would force the England batters to hit on the rise with frontfoot play, and taking the risk on a seaming wicket that has remained under the weather and retained some moisture. With rains lurking, and Duckworth-Lewis method helping the team batting second, the decision after winning the toss won8217;t be difficult.

With an orthodox 5-4 field 8212;- the square on the off-side packed with a gully, backward point, third-man, two slips and a cover and mid-off 8212;- Zaheer, especially would be looking to bring the ball back in a lot while Ajit Agarkar and the third seamer stick to the off, off-and-middle line to cut off any extra width.

Just who will be that person, and the one spinner to play in the 7 plus 4 composition may be a bit tricky for Dravid. He will play it safe with his one-day specialist and most economical Munaf Patel as the third option with Ramesh Powar as the specialist spinner in the ranks. 8220;Ajit and Munaf had been flown in for the ODIs. Ajit is more experienced and obviously found the transition easer than Munaf, who has come back from injury, but we need to give him more time and see,8221; said Dravid.

India8217;s batting order is well-set with Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar extending their opening alliance, Gambhir at No. 3, Yuvraj, Dravid, Dinesh Kaarthick and MS Dhoni making up a formidable middle-order.

It8217;s not top heavy. 8220;I have moved myself around a bit keeping that in mind, we will stick with Sachin and Sourav to open the innings, and we are very keen that Yuvraj Singh gets a lot of opportunities here. He8217;s an exciting one-day player, who has got a lot success, the more he bats, it8217;s better for the development of the team and for him. We will try during the series that he plays a lot more overs,8221; says Dravid.

England, on the other hand, are been sitting back waiting for another bout, literally. Skipper Collingwood has surprised all with his idea of boxing to get the 8220;element of aggression in their team.8221;

Peitersen would hope that his second stint at his homeground would just be as run-heavy as against last year against Australia while Matt Prior, chastised for his 8216;keeping in Test matches would look to redeem himself with an improved show and some runs opening the innings along with Alastair Cook with Ian Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff batting at number six.

While the final eleven is yet to decided, Bopara and Dimitri Mascarenhas are likely to be the other two all-rounders 8212;-apart from Flintoff 8212;- in the side to add depth and flexibility. Monty Panesar, Chris Tremlett and James Anderson complete the eleven.