Oh Lord !

The start of the English Summer for the Indian Cricket Team, and what better way to start than to walk down the corridors and the steps at the Lords : The Mecca of World Cricket.

The following are the various factors this might influence the outcome of the first test match.


Indian Openers: Where are they?
Barring the 1986 and 1996 series, Lords has been a virtual death trap for the touring Indian Team. Even the supposedly successful 2002 series encounter at the Lords was nothing but embarrassing. India lost by over 170 runs and the saving grace in that encounter was a century by the Bombay Duck Ajit Agarker.

Why is this so? The simple reason for this is lack of quality openers. In the year 2002, the test match was played between the 25th and the 29th of July. What happened then, Jaffer, in the very first over, decided to play across the line and was bowled between the gates.

This raises a serious question, are the openers capable of handling the pace/swing attack?
With the absence of Harmison, Hoggard (back spasm), and Flintoff, the answer seems to be may be yes.

Jaffer seems to blow hot and cold. Either he scores a century or is out in single figures. This is a bad trend as loosing the opener in the first hour puts lots of pressure in our middle order.

This is where I guess, Aakash Chopra was very very useful in the famous Oz tour of 2004. Personally for him he did score a big century but what he did for the team was more than a century. He blunted the new ball attack and that allowed the middle order to play their natural game i.e. to attack.


English summer:

This year seems to be a bit weird with regard to the summer weather. In 2005 & 2006 the average temperature in July was around 27C however this time around it is 20C. Now that is a significant fall. Also this was considered to be the wettest July in years in England.

This should, for sure, make things a bit more interesting.

With persistent rain, it would be difficult for the ground staff to prepare a typical Lords wicket i.e. assisting Seam bowlers in the first 2 sessions. Having said that, the wicket should play good and that the spinners will have something for them in the pitch on day 4 & day 5.

Also watch out for the old saying "Wine, Women and Weather in England can never be predicted"


Monty Factor:

Don't underestimate this chap. He is too good and is the best thing to happen in English cricket for over a decade. He has the quality and the patience to work out a batsman. With Indians being traditionally week against left arm slow bowlers (Remember Ray Price, Michael Clarke, Paul Harris, Ashley Giles to name a few) I guess Monty should have a very big say in the outcome of this series.

However with the absence of Harmy, Freddy and Hoggy, Monty will find the going tough as there isn't any quality bowling from the other end to restrict and put pressure on the Indian Batsmen.


Vaughn vs Colly :

This is interesting, as we are gong to have to leaders, one for the ODI's and the other for Tests taking field. Sure there will be some comparison in their leadership abilities but I don't think there should be any problem in Vaughn handling Colly. With English tabloids comparing both, the pressure will definitely be felt.

Dravid's leadership abilities:

This will be very critical for the outcome of the first test / the entire series. He should lead from the front both with the bat and in the field and should not let thing drift too much out of his control. This is going to be a key series for him in terms of his future as captain.


Indian Combination: 74 or 65?

I guess Indians should go ahead with the 65 combination with 6 batters and 5 bowlers. KKD should take up the responsibility of keeping wickets. If need arise, Dravid / VVS can open the innings along with Jaffer. So my combination will be a 65 combination with Kumble and Romesh Powar as spinners and Zak, Shrishant and RPS as my seamers.

There is no point going into this test match in a defensive frame of mind. We should aim to get 20 wickets and the best possible way is to play 5 bowlers.


Prediction:

With Hoggy pulling out, I would rate it as 65 - 35 favouring India.


Cheers
PG