Kotla is his favourite ground and let’s wish him the best here to whip up another tenner.

Like I said before – I think you underestimate the depth of feeling in this side to win and win comprehensively.

Anil Kumble epitomizes that. And retirement talk is a distraction he does not need.

Mishra will do well to spend time in the dressing room, and even better is he hangs around Kumble. It will be a great learning experience for the lad.

Cheers,

I agree in all fairness, that Australian fan cannot possibly know how the world felt about Australia walloping everyone. In India, we were insulated with most of the bi-lateral series but you cannot forget that world cup .

Oh you let it rip.

BTW, what do you reckon about this reverse swing business… we knew Zak could do it a bit… doesn’t it come across as something strange… considering the extend of this swing which I have never seen before here in India.

It could genuinely mean that finally there is some quality in the fresh blood of Ishanth’s, RPs or are we doing an England… you reckon there are some mints floating around. Am sure this match referee with his famous bias must be scanning hard.

I like this window plan… I reckon post NZ series or at the NZ series may be the ideal time. Kotla is kumble’s favourite hunting ground and he will be licking his lips for sure. But what do you make out of Kumble’s talk on going out considering he said Bangalore was the last one off his home ground.

The signs were there last season itself…India’s own poor choice of openers then, the home den aggression of Australia, and the B-B que team of white aproned chefs helped cook and conceal the flaws which were all there for the world to see.

A section of cricket followers may continue to live in denial but it was evident then that Australia was pretending to be Australaia rather than be Australia.

The team which is playing now does not even pretend to be Australia…the odd sorry comment is all that harks back to a great Australian era of verbal volleys backed by true deeds (sometimes assisted…and the superficial nature of those odd comments is such that they do not event attempt to lend anything beyond a veneer of Australianness. It must be the state of global economy – Australian cheese must now contain chalk with just a dash of cheese essence.

There are two more to go and India must not lift its foot from the Ozzie throat.

Like the recent victories for India, this too came as a contributory effort from all members of the team. Good show.

Could Laxman be made the fall guy to accomodate Kumble?

As far as the said Australian fan’s comment is concerned…he/she cannot know what the world felt or how it suffered the Ozzies, their loose tongue on and off the field (you still see it reflected on some Ozzie blogs and forum posts), the distortion of how the game is to be played (they were the original George Bush…not George Bush himself), and how we suffered the cowardliness of umpires sucking up to an aggressive team and country.

No…that Australian fan you mention, does not know, cannot know, and will never know how the world felt when playing Australia…ever!

There are England, Pakistan and New Zealand in this cricket season for us to blood youngsters. Australia is not the time or series to replace captains and spin bowlers and start charting courses for seniors.

The way I look at it, post the NZ tour, we have 6 months of no Test cricket before we play SL at home. Which is a perfect cut off point for a few careers.

In the interim, there are England (2), Pakistan (3) and New Zealand (3) tests in which the next gen can be eased in and out of the team to get a flavor of international cricket.

So, assuming Badri replaces Saurav, we can have Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina alternating with Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the 8 Tests – RD and VVS can take the #3 slot while Raina and Sharma take the #6 slot.

Cheers,