India England Test series

With the first test at Lords starting in a few days, a lot has been written about the tour result. Without nay information about game day pitches and weather, I can just say that it will be a tough battle between two teams who based on expected players are equal.

Now before you attack me for making that statement, I believe both teams are almost equal and India has a slight edge after Harmison injury. Let me dissect the statement further

1> Bowling: a lot has been said about the Indian bowling being raw. Test for test, England bowling is worse than India. Hoggards (64 tests), Monty (17 tests) Sidebottom (4 tests), Anderson (16 tests) and two debutants compare unfavourably to Kumble (115 Tests), Zaheer (47 Tests), Sreesanth (8 Tests), RP Singh (4 tests) Powar (2 tests) and two debutants. To be fair, local conditions and more first class experience reduce the gap. I would give the Indian bowlers just a slight edge.

2> Middle order: Indian middle quartrant - Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman - is coming back into their form and has more experienced than the English equivalent. On the other hand, though, English middle order - Vaughan, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell has been in good form recently, but they seem to be fatigued after a tiring schedule. I would India a slight edge over here.

3> Openers: Indian opening pair is inexperienced and is not consistent. On the other hand , English opening pair has been performing well and is more stable than Indian. English openers have a big edge over Indian pair.

4> The two wicket keepers are almost at par. More experience of Dhoni is compensated by Prior's first class experience. Both are attacking strokemakers.

Over all we expect a good tussle matches with relatively high scoring matches. Final results will depend on how Indian new bowl attack negates the English opening advantage and English middle order converts the local advantage to bridge or overcome the middle order gap.

LET THE BATTLE BEGIN