Phew...Dhoni!!!

Huh...I get back to writing my heart out after almost 2 years...has been quite sometime....and yes I have forgotten and forgiven my stupid manager...

Coming back to my heart-touching topic...Cricket...what a year this has been for India. Winning the World Cup, that too in the Home country. MSD. The man with Midas touch. Probably, the greatest Indian captain ever. Captain cool, calm, focussed, strategic, team-man, winner. Over the past few months MSD has clearly become the messiah for thores of Indian fans. T20, World Cup, IPL, Championship Trophy, and the list can go on and on. Not just Dhoni, but the Indian fan can just pinch themselves if all this glory is for real. Congrats Man, many milestones achieved.

Enter post IPL. Half of the Indian team is either injured or is rugged-out due to over-exhaustive schedule. Indian team for Windies tour is picked sans MSD, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zak, Gambhir, Yuvraj et al. Suresh Raina, leads the pack of young legs on the field and wins the One-day series 3-2, just keep the reputation of India as World Champions. Tests, MSD takes the charge again and delivers 1-0 in a 3 test series. Kudos. Ishant Sharma deserves a mention, for his comeback to the Indian side, with an outstanding performance.

England tour beckons. Lots of hype. Lots of credibility, reputation at stake. Can India sustain No 1 ranking. Probably, the best possible squad with Tendulkar, VVS, Dravid, MSD, Zak is selected to give jitters to the English camp. The first 3-day game against Somerset and there comes the cat out of the bag. Oh dear, is something amiss. What happened to the sharpened Indian pace attack. Where are the batsmen. A young rookie pacemen makes Indian team bite the dust.

Lords Test : This was sure to set the tone for the rest of the tour. India just didn't have the right record at this Mecca, and they kept that reputation. Injury to Zak was enough to leave the Indian pace attack in tatters. Though PK, Ishant did their bit, but they never enjoyed the support from the other end. Fabulous 200 by KP, quick-fire century by Prior made the Indian team go down tamely. Never like a roaring TIGER, never like a Dhoni. Phew Dhoni :( Harbhajan, very honestly, you disappointed. Special ovation to the WALL a.k.a Rahul Dravid,for being the centurion and a true Test player.

Nottimgham Test : India miss Gambhir, Zak. Come back very strong at England on Day 1. Broad saved the day for England, making it past 200. Poor start to Indian innings, Mukund out on the very 1st ball. Dravid and VVS, look really special, giving there-after a decent start to the Indian innings. Couple of wickets fall, though India edge past English total. Dravid, the man again, scores the century. Broad, the man for England, takes the hat-trick and phew again. Ishant, Sree and PK who had looked lethal in the first innings, don't give a flyer to India. English batsmen, make India toil. Century by Bell, quick-fire runs by Bresnan, Morgan were the highlight. India were set a mamoth total for evening the series. And phew again. What a show. What a side this has been. I had the feeling, that India will make England take the ground on Day 5. Very honestly, I had pinned the hopes, though absolutely unrealistic, that India would win the Test. Phew, do I need to mention the scores.

Alas, like any ardent fan of Indian cricket, it was a heart-breaking day. The strategist MSD failed, all tricks gone and a lot is at stake now.

The English side would win the series for sure. Anderson, Broad are in top form. KP, Prior, Trott, Bell have done very well with the bat to boost their confidence. They all are playing like a cohesive unit, exploiting the conditions very well and should do very well in the coming tests. Return of Sehwag does give some potency to the Indian squad, but please note that Sehwag is returning from a long injury. He would take some time to get used to the conditions and that makes his form a bit questionable. Harbhajan is out of the squad now and that may make place for Mishra to step in. The issue that seems is that the pitches aren't too supportive for spinners. Probably, that is the reason why offie Swann has done comparative well in the first two tests. So not sure how much Mishra can have his chance.

Though MSD has vowed for a comeback into the series, it all looks iffy. England have the best chance of getting to No 1 position and they would leave no room for complacency. It's probably a gargantuan task for MSD to wow the Indian fans. If and only if, Indian team, can level series, which looks highly unlikely, then as a fan of MSD, it would be a big salute to this iron-strong man.

My 2 cents, the series belongs to England 3-0.

Congrats, England, you are No 1.

Phew...Dhoni !!!