England lifts their first ever ICC trophy

I've never expected England to reach this far. I agree that they are a good team. They are the pioneers of cricket. But they've never managed to win a major ICC trophy. Even if they reached the final of this year's Twenty20 World cup, I still had some doubt if they can do it this time. They were against Australia and that made me feel that England might have to wait more. But......they made history by defeating Australia in ICC world Twenty 2010 final. This is a moment to cherish for england fans.

I still wonder if it was Australia against which England played this final. Australia never looked dominant right from the start of the match except for one over in which they got 21 runs. Full credit goes to England for their superb fielding and collective performances with bat and bowl. It's very rare to see Australia loosing a final. They came into the final unbeaten. They came out of nowhere in the semifinal against Pakistan to register an excellent win to reach the final thanks to an exceptional knock of 60 from 24 balls from Mr Cricket.

After loosing a final against England, Austrlia would definitely want to comeback hard at them in the Ashes. It'll be a good contest to enjoy.

PS: I congratulate one of my friends(An ardent fan of England) on England's victory.

Villainy continues

He holds the record of standing in more than 100 test matches and the second highest in ODIs. He also holds the record of standing in five successive world cup finals. But this much experienced umpire has a grudge against India. Every time he stands in match played by India, there would be atleast one decision against India. And he continues his villainy even after retiring from the umpiring.

Mr. Bucknor, you have to consider apologizing the indian team and BCCI for your wrong decisions against India instead of claiming that BCCI is the reason behind your retirement.

Anyway one thing that makes me feel happy is that he retired :)
Is there any instance of a retired umpire coming back to international cricket? Don't tell me there is..

Why was he left out?

Dhoni, after winning the 3rd ODI and the series, said that the players who did not get a chance will get a chance to play in the next ODI and also said that he is not really looking for the record.

But I wonder why Jadeja was left out 2day?

Is Dhoni looking for the record?

India needs an all-rounder

An all-rounder plays a significant role in cricket.

Kallis for South Africa, Michale Clark and Symonds for Australia, Flintoff for England, Malik for Pakistan, Gayle for West Indies, Jacob Oram for New Zealand, Jayasuriya for Sri Lanka have been playing an important role of an all-rounder in their respective teams.

But India lacks a genuine all-rounder.

Almost all teams have a good all-rounder, but India doesn't.

Along with Kapil Dev, the players Mohinder Amarnath, Roger Binny, Ravi Shastri, Madan Lal and Manoj Prabhakar had the capability to change the game either with the bat or with the ball.

After Kapil Dev's retirement, India has been facing this problem of finding a genuine all-rounder.

Robin Singh shined once but out of the team in a short time.

Agarkar and Sreenath had come into the team as all-rounders but settled as bowlers.

Irfan Pathan was thought to be the perfect all-rounder after Kapil Dev..but he is now a total failure in both bowling and batting.

Currently we have Yuvraj, Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan and some others who can fill the fifth bowler's slot.

But what we need is a specific all-rounder who is very good at bowling.

Ravindra Jadeja who got a place in the Indian team as an all-rounder is all set to prove his capabilities in the Sri Lanka tour.

Let's hope Jadeja proves as a worthy successor to Kapil Dev.

A great year for cricket

The year 2008 will be remembered in cricket history forever... 2008 is the beginning of the end of an era of Australia's domination in the world cricket. 2008 brought a new life to test cricket. India and South Africa are the stars in 2008. Both these teams are the strong contenders for the top spot in test cricket.

IPL was a great success... "We don't even watch one day cricket...then how can we watch test cricket....the future is Twenty20 cricket's"....This is what we have been hearing recently...All the cricket fans, former players, cricket analysts.....everyone who is attached to cricket have been saying just one thing..."Test cricket is in danger"...

But the two test match results, at the end of 2008, in a span of a week gave a new life to test cricket....one is the first test between India and England Chennai in December, and the second one is the first test between Australia and South Africa at Perth in December...And also out of 46 test matches that took place in 2008, 35 matches got the results which shows that test cricket has gained some speed.

And the year ended on Australia losing a test series to South Africa, at home, after 16 years..

The performances of teams in 2008.

India: No doubt 2008 will remain as a wonderful year in India cricket. Dhoni took on the test captaincy and now he is the captain of team India in all formats of the game. There are so many unforgettable moments like test series win against Australia in India, CB series win, test and ODI series win against England, IPL etc.. Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Zaheer, Ishant, Harbhajan and Dhoni's captaincy took India to great heights.. Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar and Laxman crossed 1000 runs in tests in a calender year..The year marked the end of an era with Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble bidding adieu to international cricket.

South Africa: South Africa is on a roll under Smith's captaincy. SA won 11 of their 15 test matches played in 2008. SA has been very consistent in all the formats of the game. Smith is the leading run scorer in tests in 2008 with 1656 runs in 15 test matches. Amla also crossed 100 runs in tests in 2008. Steyn is the leading wicket taker in tests in 2008. SA has got a new talent in the form of Duminy. De Villiers has been in good touch..If they continue this form, they will surely be No.1 in all formats..

Australia: 2008 is the year Australia don't want to remember. 2008 marked the end of an era of Australia's dominance. Australia's great wicket-keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist retired in 2008 after CB series. The effect of the retirement of McGrath and Warne was completely visible on the team's performance. Australia lost to India and SA in successive test series at the end of the year. The form of their top order batsmen like Hayden, Ponting and Hussey has been their main concern. Bowling department is also looking weak with no one, except Johnson, performing well. Retaining Ashes is their main focus in 2009.

Sri Lanka: Mendis is SL's new weapon. Asia cup win was their biggest win in 2008. The team was not up to the mark in a series with Zimbabwe. With Mendis and Murlai in the bowling department, and Jayawardena, Sangakkara, Dilshan in batting department, SL looks ahead for a great future.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming retired after the test match against England in Napier. Except Vettori and McCullum no other player performed well for New Zealand. New Zealand has many new players. It will take a little time before they all adjust. NZ got mixed results in 2008.

England: After England lost the four match series against South Africa, captain Michael Vaughan stepped down from the captaincy. England appointed Kevin Pietersen as their new captain. England's whole concentration has been on Ashes. England won the hearts of many people by coming to India and play the test series after Mumbai blasts. Pietersen was their star in 2008 with Flintoff, Strauss, Collingwood performing consistently. Stuart Broad is a rising talent. England's bowling department is also good with Sidebottom, Anderson and Harmison.

West Indies: The form of West Indies was very bad. They won only one test match in 2008. The team depends a lot on Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul.

Pakistan: 2008 is a worst year in Pakistan's cricket. Pak did not played even a single test. They played some ODIs and won many matches but all of them came against weak teams. Pak is pleading other teams to come and play in Pak. Neutral venues seems to be the only option for Pakistan. Pakistan's great player Mohammad Yousuf joined ICL. It was a big shock to Pak. Aisf was accused of using drugs in IPL and banned from all formats of cricket.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh cricket was under shock when 14 of their cricketers joined ICL. But with many other youngsters like Shakib-ul-Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mortaza, the team performed well under the captaincy of Ashraful. But the results were not satisfying. On a whole, their performance improved a little bit.

Smith, Sehwag, Gambhir, Steyn and Mendis were the stars of 2008.

Hoping for a much more exciting cricket in 2009...

India to cut-off ties with Pakistan?

It is really sad to see the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. The attacks have damaged India's relationships with Pakistan. Cricket between these two countires is also largely affected. Though there is no official confirmation, many news channels have reported that India's tour of Pakistan is cancelled. As it is found that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai have links with Pakistan, Central Government refused India's tour of Pakistan. It is also decided that there should not be any cricketing ties with Pakistan in future.

There was no cricket between India and Pakistan for almost two years during Kargil war in 1999. After some talks the cricketing ties were resumed in 2001.

The sources also ruled out the possibility of India playing the series at a neutral venue as proposed by PCB. It is known that many of our cricketers like Sachin, Dhoni are reluctant to tour Pakistan. In any way, cricketing ties between India and Pakistan are certain to be affected for sometime.

Is India's decision to stop cricketing ties with Pakistan right??
Will this decision have any effect on world cricket?

Anyway I hope India and Pakistan will resolve their differences soon....

Money power should save

No team has toured Pakistan for the last one year showing security concerns. India has also witnessed terrosit attacks in main cities in the last few months. But I think the teams will tour India because of BCCI's money power. Other boards will lose financially if they don't tour India. Cricket is adored in India and in international cricket, it is India that generates 70% of crickets income.

Coming to England's test tour, BCCI may use IPL as the weapon in bringing them back. If England refuses to tour India, the chances of the England players playing in IPL will be nil. Already many England cricketers are worrying for not playing in IPL. The relationship between ECB and BCCI has not been so good. There has been many disputes over ICL players, ECB deciding to unveil new league, ECB not allowing their cricketers not to play in IPL etc.. If England refuses to tour India now, the relations between ECB and BCCI may slide down furthur. If England team comes to India, India can prove that playing in India is safe.

Australia and South Africa who are the partners of Champions League will want cricket to be played in India. Both these boards will get US $3 millions if CL is played. The amount may increase in future. I don't think the boards want to lose this amount.

After England's tour in India, there won't be any other matches in India untill IPL, except Chamiopns League. Everything will be normal by that time. India is trying to host the 2 test matches against England by providing a tight security and trying to prove that everything will be fine and there won't be any problem to host 2011 world cup.

Was Dhoni right?

India was shocked to hear that Dhoni had offered to resign from the captaincy following Irfan Pathan's inclusion ahead of RP Singh.

The rift between captain and the selectors is not new. Almost all countires have been facing the same situation, especially Pakistan. But the main concern here is the leak of selection report.

Dhoni took charge of India as a captain during T20 world cup last year. In one year, he has become the captain for India in all formats. India has been very consistent and winning the series under his captaincy. He might have thought that the team is completely under his control as he has not faced any problem with his captaincy till now. This might have lead to the rift between Dhoni and the selectors.

No doubt he is a talented batsman and a good captain. But Dhoni has a long way to go before he reaches his potential as a captain. Dhoni has been safe as India is winnig the matches. If India starts to lose, then Dhoni has to face a lot of criticism. If you are in good form, people praise you and if you lose your form, the same people will criticise you.

The best example is India's 2007 World Cup failure. Dhoni was out of form in that tournament and the fans damaged Dhoni's under construction house in Ranchi. Selectors need to back if you lose your form and if you are under pressure. So Dhoni needs to calm down a bit and has act with restraint.

There was only one captain who took complete contorl of his team selection. It was Imran Khan of Pakistan. Selectors would not say a word when Imran picks the team. It was largely due to his all rounder qualities with which he was able to lead his team successfully.


If the captain can decide who should be in the team, and who should not be, then what is the use of selection committee? I am not saying that the captain should not be given a chance in picking the team. The captain and the coach should be given a chance in picking the team. Consider a player's recent performance, his ability to play on any kind of surface in any situation while picking him.

What do you guys say?

ICL and Indian domestic players

Everyone thought that ICL won't be a great success when it was started on April 3, 2007. But it's proving us wrong with its success. The league started becuase BCCI was ignoring many talented young players at the domestic level.

Though the first season of ICL was not successful, this season was a grand success with large crowd coming for all the matches. The quality of cricket was good and so was the crowd at all the grounds.

ICL started with 6 teams, which expanded to 8 in early 2008 and added one more in the second half of the same year.

ICL television ratings were very strong towards the end of their first season. 55 million people watched the first series of the tournament and most estimates have this season's television audience at above 100 million viewers.

There is a lot of talent at the domestic level with the hunger to prove themselves and represent their country. Most of the domestic players are proving their talent in ICL.

The following players(Indian) were very successful in ICL.

Rajagopal Sathish : This all-rounder plays for Chennai Super Stars and scored 287 runs from 9 matches at an average of 47.83 in this tournament with 76* being his highest score. He scored 843 runs from 36 matches at an average of 32.42 in ICL Twenty20s with 86* being his highest score and took 14 wickets. He has the most number(6) of fifties in ICL Twenty20s. He is also the captain of ICL IndiaXI.

His first class average is 37.03 with 1222 runs in 22 matches. His highest score is 204*.

Ambati Rayudu : He is a great talent and can play according to the situation. He has been one of the consistent performers for Hyderabad Heroes. He played an important role in Heroes winning the first season title. People, especially Hyderabadis, saw Azharuddin in Rayudu. But he was unfortunate to get a call to national team.

He scored 212 runs in 12 matches in this tournament where as he scored 738 runs in 35 ICL Twenty20 matches at an average of 23.81.

Ganapathi Vignesh : Vignesh is a good all-rounder. He plays for Chennai Super Stars. He averaged 29.11 in 9 matches and scored 262 runs. 88 was his highest score in this tournament.
In all 32 ICL Twenty20 matches he played, he scored 882 runs at an average of 27.56 and took 28 wickets.

Stuart Binny : Stuart Binny is the son of former Indian cricketer Rojer Binny. Stuart plays for Hyderabad Heroes in ICL and has been a part of their success in the tournament. He scored 258 runs at average of 25.80 and took 5 wickets in 12 matches. In all 29 ICL Twenty20 matches he played, he scored 667 at an average of 27.79 and took 16 wickets.

Ibrahim Khaleel : This wicketkeeper-batsman has a lot of talent. He provided good starts for Hyderabad Heroes. He scored 219 runs in 12 matches at an average of 73.00 in this tournament. He played an important role in Heroes' win. In all 22 ICL Twenty20 matches he played, he scored 449 runs at an average of 32.07.

TP Singh : This left-handed batsman plays for Chandigarh Lions in ICL. He is useful with the ball also. He scored 219 in 12 matches with an average of 31.28 and took 4 wickets in this tournament where as he scored 828 runs in 34 ICL Twenty20 matches with an average of 26.71 and took 13 wickets.

Inder Shekar Reddy : This slow left-arm orthodox bowler plays for Hyderabad Heroes. He took 15 wicketsin 12 matches at an average of 15.00 in this tournament. In all 34 ICL Twenty20 matches he played, he took 31 wickets at an average of 23.42.

T Kumaran: This right-arm medium bowler plays for Chennai Super Stars and was very successful in the first season of ICL. He played only one match in this season. He took 35 wickets in all the 20 matches he played.

ICL proved the perfect platform for many players to showcase their talents. I strongly feel these players make a strong bench strength for India. It is a great talent and unfortunately we may not see them in indian team.

BCCI shouldn't ignore the talented players for the reasons other than talent. It needs to support the players irrespective of whether they play for a rebel league or BCCI.

Courtesy: indiancricketleauge.in and cricinfo.com

Singh is king

It was an awesome performance by Yuvraj. His effort, both with the bat and the ball, powered India to gain 2-0 lead in 7 match ODI series.

He hit 2nd consecutive century followed by a 4-wicket haul. This century was special and important than the one in the first ODI as he got this one when the team needed. It was definitely one of his memorable innings. He is more confident now and needs to make sure he continues his good form.

After winning the toss and elected to bat, India got off to a poor start. Sehwag(1), Raina(4) and Rohit Sharma(3) were dismissed early by Stuart Broad.

After their departure, Yuvraj and Gambhir(70) added 134 runs in 22.3 overs for the 4th wicket to take India to a comfortable position before Pietersen dismissed Gambhir. Yuvraj Singh took India out of trouble with his wonderful batting. Gambhir did excellent for his 70, but failed again to reach 100 after getting it to 50.

Dhoni made just 15 before Paul Collingwood dismissed him. Broad returned in the 3rd powerplay , for his second spell, and removed Yuvraj. Harbhajan and Zaheer were run out trying to get the runs quickly. Harmison dismissed RP Singh the last over. Yusuf Pathan took the responsibility after Yuvraj and scored an unbeaten 50 from 29 deliveries to take India to 292/9 in 50 overs. It was his maiden half century in ODIs.

England managed only 238 from 47 overs in reply. England began their innings on a disatrous note when Suresh Raina run out Ian Bell(1) with brilliant fielding, in the first over of England's innings. Owais Shah(58) and Prior(38) took the responsibility of building up the innings and scored 96 runs in 22.1 overs before Yuvraj struck. He dismissed Shah and Prior in two overs.

Ashes heroes, Pietersen(33) and Flintoff(43), found it difficult to score runs as Yuvraj and Harbhajan quickly chipped in with economical overs, and the required-rate crept up towards 9 an over. England skipper took a smart move by opting for the 3rd powerplay at that time and England scored 59 in that 5 overs which brought the visitors a ray of hope.

But Yuvraj's two wicket over, just after power play, turned the match completely towards India. He dismissed Flintoff and Pietersen in that over to make it 4-28, his scond best in ODIs. Harbhajan Singh took a return catch to dismiss Paul Collingwood (2). Yusuf Pathan dismissed Ravinder Bopara (3) in his first over. Virender Sehwag then took the next three England wickets dismissing Samit Patel (20), Steve Harmison (6) and Stuart Broad (22) to all out England for 238.

Interestingly, all the England wickets(except Bell's run out) were taken by the spinners. But England spinners have managed to take only 1 Indian wicket.

One thing, I don't understand with England is why they sent Bopara after Samit Patel. When you take Bopara as a batsman you have to use him. England need to send him before Patel and Collingwood.

The two teams will now travel to Kanpur for the third match to be played on Thursday.

Advantage India

Just 3 days after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India is ready to take on England.

India has the destructive opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir (M Vijay as back up opener) compared to England's Ian Bell and Matt Prior (A Cook as back p opener).

Both teams have a good pace attack. England has no quality/experienced spinner while India has got Bhajji.

Both teams have strong middle-order. England's middle order has players like Pietersen, Flintoff, Collingwood, Bopara and Owais Shah while India has Rohit Sharma, Raina, Dhoni, Kohli and Yuvraj.

The teams are almost equal in terms of their batting, bowling and fielding.

But India is mentally strong after winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-0 while England goes into the series after thet were humiliated by Mumbai Cricket Association XI in the 2nd practice match and Stanford Super Stars in the Stanford Twenty 20 match.

India has clearly an edge over England.

It will be interesting to see how the new powerplay rules are going to effect the game.

Heroes Vs Badshahs

Last ICL tournament finalists, Hyderabad Heros and Lahore Badshahs, are once again ready to face each other in the on-going ICL tournament.
Hyderabad Heros won the best of 3 finals in the last tournament.
Heros won 7 out of 9 matches they played where as Badshahs won 6.
Both of the are looking good and it's going to be an entertaining best of 3 finals.
I hope Heroes will retain the ICL trophy :)

Pakistan clinches the nail biting thriller

What a match!
Pakistan won the nail biting thriller against West Indies.
West Indies set a target of 295 for Pakistan, thanx to the brilliant 113 from Chris Gayle.
Needing 17 off the last over, Kamran Akmal hit 2 sixes in that over to win the match for Pakistan.
A very entertaining knock from Akmal...

Is it possible

to have a multi-nation series in test cricket as in ODIs?

Test matches are usually played between two teams in a group of matches. We are always fed up with watching the test matches between two teams only. As in ODIs, I want to watch a test series which is played among 3 or more nations. Can we have multi-nation series in test cricket as in ODIs?

What do u say guys??

A warning to Yuvi ?

A few days ago, I wrote about Yuvraj's place in the Indian team.

He should now give a serious thought on his current form and his place in the team as BCCI has sent a strong message to Yuvraj by promoting Sehwag as India's Vice-Captain.

Yuvraj is removed from the duty of Vice Captain and Sehwag is the new Vice-Captain. So, Yuvraj, if you still don't concentrate on your batting and come back strongly, the next step BCCI would take is to drop you for the future tours and you would loose your place in the ODI team too.

Master reaches another century

After Indian skipper Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first, India got off to a flyer on day one of the second Test against Australia in Mohali before Australia came back to remove 3 wickets in quick succession.

After being selected into the side to replace the banned Gautam Gambhir, Vijay started confidently and played well for his 33 before being dismissed by Watson. Sehwag and Vijay scored 98 for the first wicket. The debutant Krejza took 3 wickets on day-1. But Sachin was not his first test wicket :). He dismissed Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman. But he gave mway any runs. Sehwag was looking dangerous but got out playing a bad shot. Rahul Dravid once again failed to score and was out for a duck. The wall is cracking... The pressure is on him and I think we are going to hear about his retirement soon.

After the collapse both Tendulkar and Laxman played some beautiful strokes and rebuilt the innings. Theyscored 146 for the 4th wicket. Laxman scored another fifty in this series. Ganguly came to the crease after Laxman departed. Tendulkar reached his 40th century after being dropped by Lee when he was on 98 and was dismissed by Johnson for 109. He was dropped by Haddin already and missed a run-out chance too.

India is on 311/5 with Ganguly and Dhoni are on 27 and 4 at the end of the day. This was Tendulkar's day. Jason Krejza made a decent debut too. India need big runs from Dhoni, Ganguly and the lower order if they want to make the best use of winning the toss and batting first.

Pakistan cricket in shock

He has been in dilemma for the last eight months whether to join ICL or not. Finally he comes out and joins ICL...
Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan signed up for ICL and as expected he is banned by Pakistan cricket board from all forms of the game. He will play for Lahore Badshahs in ICL.

Yousuf is the No.3 batsman in Tests and No.5 bastsman in ODIs. He is the Pakistan's best batsman now. It's a big shock and a big loss for Pakistan. None of the Pakistani players can replace this batsman. Pakistan will have to suffer in their next series against India. Not only against India, Pakistan will be outplayed by every other nations.

Yousuf said "I have decided to sign for ICL. There was a misunderstanding with the ICL. I was misguided and confused and not able to take a decision earlier. See, I want to continue playing for Pakistan and the ICL authorities also have no problem with that."

But Yousuf, you have done a great mistake by choosing ICL ahead of your nation though you know you will be banned. The pakistan cricket is in a grim situation now and you left your team aside for money when you are supposed to be with the team. Really shame on you Yousuf. You made pakistan cricket even worser...

India Vs Australia 4th test preview

India is going into the 4th test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy with 1-0 lead. Australia must win this test match to retain the Trophy.

Indian team composition:
The selectors called up M Vijay as back up for Gambhir as Gambhir is banned for one test match. Vijay has been in good form. He scored a double century against Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy. If he gets a chance, it's Vireder Sehwag who has to score for the team as Vijay will be under pressure in his first match. This looks to be the only change in the indian team apart from Bhajji returning to team in place of Anil Kumble. Bhajji is one wicket away from his 300 test wickets. Amit Mishra is confident and is bowling well.

There is also a possiblity of Dravid and Sehwag open for India and bring Badrinath in. But I do't think it happens. Dravid is under pressure as he hasn't played a big innings in the series. If he is sent to open the innings, it will add more to his pressure.
So, Vijay will make his test debut.

Indian Team(Probable) : Virender Sehwag, M Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Gangly, MS Dhoni(captain & wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra

This is the last test for Sourav Ganguly and the 100th test for VVS Laxman.

Australian team Composition:
Australia won the series in India after nearly 34 years by winning a test match here in 2004. It was for that match Ganguly and Harbhajan were absent. Gilchrist mentioned this in his auto-biography.

Asutralia is in a better position to win/draw the 4th test as all their batsmen are in good touch and have got some runs in the 3rd test match. Australia's only concern is their bowling line-up. They are looking at all possible options for the last test match. Ponting indicates that Stuart Clark may have to sit out and Krejza might debut. But I think Australia should drop White and bring in Krejza. White never looked dangerous and he struggled against the Indian bastmen.

Australian Team(Probable) : Simon Katich, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting(captain), Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin(wicket-keeper), Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Jason Krejza

Gambhir's ban might help Australia and they might be happy as he is not playing. He is the leading run scorer, with 463 runs with 2 centuries and a fifty in three matches, in the series.

They have to concentrate on their bowling and come up with a better team effort to win the test and retain the trophy.

Probable Indian Squad for ODI series against England

The selectors will meet today in Nagpur to pick the 14-member Indian team for the ODI series against England starting on Nov 14. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, who missed the last ODI series in Sri Lanka, are set to return to the Indian squad. The squad may consists of 8 batsmen, including wicket-keeper, 4 pace bowlers and 2 spinners.

Batting:
There is no doubt about the selcetion of Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni, Yuvra, Raina. So the remaining two slots may be filled by Rohit Sharma, Badrinath, Uthappa and Virat Kohli. There is a tough competetion among these four. But I think the selectors will stick to Rohit and Badrinath considering their recent performances. Uthappa may have to wait for some more time before he gets a call up. Yusuf Pathan, a big disappointment with bat in the Challenger Trophy, is likely to be left out.

Pace Bowling:
Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma lead the pace bowling attack. The other options for the remaining two places are Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar. The selectors may stick to Munaf and Praveen Kumar. Irfan Pathan's recent performance, except in the Challenger's trophy, is not upto the mark. But if one of Zaher and Ishant is rested, Pathan might get a chance.

Spin Bowling:
Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha and Piyush Chawla are the other options for the second spinner besides Harbhajan. Amit Mishra is a better option for the selectors considering his form in the on-going test series against Australia. There are also a few chances for Pragyan Ojha to be selected.

Probable India Squad: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, MS Dhoni(captain & wicket-keeper), Suresh Raina, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra.

My Favourite Playing XI (in that oder):
Sachin Tendulkar
Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Rohit Sharma
Yuvraj Singh
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni
Zaheer Khan
Praveen Kumar
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma

All the 11 players in the team bowls

Yesterday, when I was looking at the scorecard for the test match between India and West Indies at Antigua in 2002 where Kumble bowled with a broken jaw, I found an interesting stat. All the 11 indian players bowled in an innings in that match. It happened twice before this match.

Here are the other two matches.

All 11 England players bowlers bowled during Australia's score of 551 at the Oval, London on August 12, 1884. In fact in this Test match Australia became the first team in Test cricket to score over 500 runs. Interestingly WG Grace kept wickets for some time thus allowing regular keeper Alfred Lyttelton to bowl during Australia's innings. He went on to claim four wickets - his figures being 12-5-19-4 - which still remains the best bowling performance by a wicket-keeper in Test cricket.

Then nearly 95 years later, on March 11, 1980 all 11 Australians bowled in Pakistan's innings of 382-2 at Faisalabad. Australia batting upto the fourth afternoon while scoring 617 runs, hardly left any time for Pakistan to bat more than once. So on the last day the Australians made all their 11 players to bowl, including their keeper Rodney Marsh (skipper Greg Chappell kept wickets after tea on the final day). Not surprisingly both the above Tests were boring drawn matches.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2001/apr/28answer.htm