Drop Yuvraj Singh For the Series Against England

With India beating Australia 2-0 in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar trophy, several questions were being raised about India's would be dominance in the all three formats game of cricket.But,as I've stated in most of my earlier posts regarding Border-Gavaskar trophy,it was partly due to the depletement of the Australian test team that landed in India,and partly for some superb performances from the likes of Ishanth Sharma and Zaheer Khan-who bowled splendidly in the series,and some blistering fireworks from the blades of V V S Laxman, M S Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir-who made most out of the flat tracks that suited the Indian style of batting.No marks to the spinners what-so-ever.

Now,team India is found to overwhelm England-the starters of cricket in the 18th century.Now,with the recent past of England cricket team's performance taken into consideration,they had defeated South Africa 4-0 in the one day series that were held in September after being defeated 2-1 against the same in the test series.And before that, there was New Zealand's tour of England,in which England won the test series and lost the one day series.But,these defeats were not that embarrassing as they are in the current tour of India.For,atleast team England were found giving a tight reply to the visitors.No matter..the England were hosting these teams,which is not the case here.With England being hosts,when the results are so horrible,one can imagine the fate when England is hosted and that too in a sub continent nation?

Irreective of the match result,what matters is the way the teams out there play the game of cricket with full spirit and never-say-die attitude.But,England was never found doing it.In the first ODI,England captain won the toss and chose to put India into bat,thinking that the pitch would be a batting heaven (which it was) and chasing any total would not be difficult.The decision was right although, but,things were not made use of by the England batsmen.When India made a score of 387,a score of atleast 300+ would have made the viewers take to guessing.But,a score of just 229 in just 37 overs is something that a non-test playing nation would be found doing.And in the 2nd ODI,despite having India reeling at 29/3 in 7.3 overs,England not only allowing India put up a big total,but lost wickets in quick succession to someone like Yuvraj Singh-who is not a bowler by anymeans.I wouldn't even give him the tag of part-time-bowler.

Whether England wins or loses the series is a different issue altogether,but,if there is to be some enthusiasm for viewers to go and watch the match in the stadium,I wish there should be atleast some restriction from the opposite team,which would make the match interesting.With the Australian team that toured India not being able to take none other than a man of the match award in the last test,I feel the die hard fans in India would be thinking twice before going out to watch a cricket match if this continues.Just imagine the fate of the sponsorers who have invested millions of dollars in IPL & ICL (keeping in mind the craze for cricket in the country),if the fans-who give their life for cricket, get bored of cricket and give up watching.

It never looks as though the England team will atleast now wake up to put up a though fight against an in-form Indian team.A solution to this would be to reduce the strength of the current Indian team to be in par with the opposition it is facing,so that the matches would be a bit more interesting with lesser one sided games.Else,be prepared for empty stands.