Can India resist on the bouncy wickets in England?

 

After their emphatic series win over England, India are once again on the rise. This is a great opportunity for Duncan Fletcher to prove his skills in the Champions Trophy. MS Dhoni would look to replicate the performance that he showed against England at home. India begin their Champions Trophy against the brutal South Africans.

The selectors have named quite a few uncapped players for the Champions Trophy. But Murali Vijay’s performance in the Champions Trophy will be under scrutiny as he hasn’t performed so far on bouncy wickets. Dhawan and Murali Vijay are likely to open for India against South Africa. On India’s tour of South Africa in 2010, Vijay managed a mere 17 runs from three matches. He needs to learn to handle short-pitched deliveries, and do it fast. South Africa have a high-quality pace-attack that can trouble the inexperienced Indian batting line-up. Rohit Sharma’s selection is a good move as he has the ability to handle short-pitched stuff that’s likely to come in generous quantities at the Indians on the fast and bouncy pitches of  England. Rohit Sharma has got a great temperament and he would hold the key for India in the middle order. He has to pace his innings well, look for ones and twos and should make the most of loose deliveries, which he is more than capable of.

Dinesh Karthik has been rewarded for his consistency for the Mumbai Indians. He can adapt to any situation and has the ability to clear the fence consistently especially in the death overs. He is generally a good player of spin bowling, but has some problems on bouncy wickets. He has, in his patchy international career for India, scored 1008 runs from 52 matches with the highest score of 79. This shows that he has the ability to play a big innings. He should bat at number four rather than at the top. He hasn’t been successful as an opener as he doesn’t have the ability to read the new-ball; the last time he had opened the innings for India, he was out for a duck.

Ravindra Jadeja has batted brilliantly at number seven for India in the recent past and also for the Chennai Super Kings this season, and is one of the best finishers of the game. For instance, Jadeja and Dhoni took India to a respectable total of 234 for loss of 7 wickets against England in 2011 after they were reeling at 97/5.  Jadeja played fearless cricket and took India to a respectable total. He will be an important batsman for India at number seven.

Suresh Raina hasn’t performed too well on bouncy wickets for India either. He was constantly troubled by the English bowlers in India’s disastrous and demoralizing tour of England. However, he has been in magnificent form in the recent past and looks in great rhythm. He has been timing the ball to perfection, and if he strikes form in Champions Trophy, very few teams can stop him.

The selectors have picked a pretty muchperfect squad for the Champions Trophy as they have included Bhuvaneswar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Irfan Pathan. The surprise selection, though, was that of Ishant Sharma. Bhuvaneswar Kumar and Irfan Pathan will relish bowling at England as the conditions will be ideal for them. Bhuvaneswar Kumar can exploit the conditions as he has the ability to deviate the ball both ways. Not many fast-bowlers have control over line and length while swinging the ball, and  Kumar is one of the very few in world cricket with that gift. Irfan Pathan’s selection stabilises the batting order, and his pace variations will be significant especially against the  Proteas, who are known to be not-so-comfortable against slow-bowling.

Amit Mishra has finally been rewarded for his brilliant performance in IPL. Mishra being picked for Champions trophy makes perfect sense as South Africa, England and West Indies have a proven weakness against quality spin bowling. Mishra has a lot of varieties and keep the batsmen guessing. His inclusion provides options for MS Dhoni at the death overs. R Ashwin will lead the attack together with Amit Mishra supporting him.

India have a pretty good squad for the Champions Trophy. They should leave for England as soon as possible to get accustomed to conditions. If the batsmen deliver the goods, then it should not be a problem for India in England to win the Champions Trophy.