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Struggling India eye win against Eng

India will be playing their first group league match against Pakistan on Friday and a win against England is a necessity considering the team’s continuing poor run. The Indians went down by five runs in the opening warm-up match against Sri Lanka last night.

Although they didn’t set the stage on fire, the two comeback men Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh had a decent outing with the bat on Monday, which makes their case even stronger. Yuvraj scored 33 and Raina contributed 41 in a losing cause but both were out after they had got set. That both can also roll their arms over on this slow track at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium makes young batsman Ajinkya Rahane’s case a bit weaker.

By getting out for nought having misread the flight of a Sachitra Senanayeke delivery, Rahane has done himself no good. The batsmen who automatically select themselves are Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina. The only place Rahane fits in is at the top of the order where both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been struggling of late. Rahane has also successfully opened for Rajasthan Royals in the last two seasons of IPLand it won’t be surprising if one among Rohit and Dhawan is dropped in order to accommodate Rahane. There remains a possibility of Dhawan making way for Rahane as Dhoni has backed Rohit in times which were even worse than this.Rohit had a long streak of single digit scores but the skipper always showed enormous faith in his talent and abilities.

R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will be the two main spinners in the side. Both being handy bowling all-rounders, they are much ahead in the pecking order than Amit Mishra, who has not done too badly in the limited opportunities that he has got. Mohammed Shami is inarguably India’s number one pacer currently and Varun Aaron looks better suited than Bhuvneshwar Kumar to become the second pacer of the side. Bhuvneshwar’s 17 runs in the final over against Sri Lanka proved to be decisive in the final context of the match.The young UP seamer is certainly under pressure as the wickets have dried up and the swing, which made him such a lethal weapon in skipper Dhoni’s armoury, is long gone.

Dhoni takes Mishra to cleaners at nets

Fatullah:
There was a feeling of deja vu as India captain MS Dhoni on Tuesday took Amit Mishra to the cleaners during a net session, much like former skipper Sourav Ganguly would do with Murali Kartik a few years ago.

In 10 balls during a particular phase, Dhoni hit Mishra for half a dozen sixes and at least four boundaries which could have qualified as near-about maximums. The manner in which Dhoni hammered Mishra into submission could be a reason as to why the skipper is reluctant on inducting the portly Haryana leggie into the playing XI. Ganguly, in his heydays, was brutal on left-arm spinners. Many believe it is precisely the reason Kartik’s Test career ended with just eight matches between 2000 and 2004 as Ganguly never faced any problems while facing him at the nets.

Ganguly had on numerous times clobbered Kartik in domestic matches. And with Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in his ranks, Ganguly never considered Kartik a good enough option in either domestic or foreign conditions.

One felt the same while watching Dhoni bat against Mishra when the Indian team trained ahead of their World T20 warm-up game against England. A few were hit towards the cow corner while some were clear straight hits and a few lofted in the region between deep extra-cover and long off. Not even once was Mishra successful in troubling Dhoni.

While he hadn’t batted during the last net session and also during the first warm-up game on Monday, there was no rustiness as he took on both pacers and spinners with aplomb. Most of the players looked jaded in the sapping afternoon heat. One of the senior batsmen, while returning to the pavilion, said that it’s unbearable out there in the middle.

Meanwhile, India reverted back to their grey coloured jersey and black lowers from the yellow jerseys which apparently has been discarded for the time being.
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