Task Cut Out For India

Now that India has beaten Bermuda by a handsome margin, it should allow them to breathe a lot more easier. The task is pretty much cut out for India now, just beat SL on March 23.

The match against Bermuda should give the Indians some confidence even though it was against the minnows. I am not going to write too much about the match since we were expected to win it. The only question was whether we will win it convincingly and by how much margin. The 250 run margin was just what the doctor ordered...just about enough to climb above SL in the run rate table.

That was an important match - particularly for Sehwag since he was struggling so much. It was really good to see him firing after a long time. Now the key is for him to continue his form into upcoming matches. Ganguly seems to be showing terrific consistency ever since he's made a comeback to the ODI Team. That Ganguly was struggling for timing for sometime is worth a mention but if he can increase his strike rate a bit that will help us.

All our batsmen barring Uthappa and Dravid got a decent outing. Zaheer was ordinary and Agarkar was horrible. Only Munaf Patel seems to be bowling good and consistent line and length.

India should not be worried about Uthappa. He is an out and out aggressive player and he must be asked to play in that fashion only and the captain, coach and team must support him and back him and give him the licence to hit. As we've seen in the past a quick 70 or 80 from him can tilt the match in our favor. Anyways we have 6+1 batsmen, so it's well worth the gamble.

India must look to Tendulkar to play well against SL, as he has the history of doing well against them. Also, if the think-tank can be sensible (and can think) it will be well worth it to drop Agarkar and bring in Pathan or Sreesanth. Agarkar has been bowling bull shit and Jayasuriya will be eagerly waiting to thrash the stupid bowler who shows great consistency in bowling cow dung on both sides of the wicket.

Since SL has lot of left handers in the line up (Jayasuriya, Tharanga, Sangakkara, Arnold, Vaas), they might just replace Kumble with Harbhajan. Either way it won't matter since both these guys are bowling horribly. Kumble might just edge him out thanks to the bag of 3 wickets against Bermuda.

Hope India beat SL and SL beat Bangladesh by a decent margin and that would just be enough to get us through to the next round with 2 points (along with SL). I am assuming though that Bangladesh won't beat Bermuda by 250 runs or chase a target of 100 runs in 10 overs.

Basic point is India should beat SL and we are into Super 8 (errr...Super 7...eh?)

Come on INDIA !!!