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India needs to pick its bowlers carefully

Anil Kumble

— PHOTO: AFP

BLADE RUNNER:Indian batsmen led by Virender Sehwag (right), seen here with Gautam Gambhir at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday, have been in great form.

It is very important that India ignore England's erratic and somewhat shaky performance against the Netherlands when it goes into the big game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.

What it should probably learn from that game is how the experience of Collingwood and Bopara ensured that even if the beginning was unsteady, the end was composed and thoroughly professional. England bats fairly deep and, after the mini-scare against the Dutch, it would be doubly careful against India.

Cautious

In any case, the visitor would be going into the game somewhat wary, as it is the underdog — according to the pundits, the punters and the people at large. For India, though, that's a dangerous place to be, the pressure is on it to win and win well. For me, the worry, as I mentioned in my last column, is India's bowling.

There's no point getting into an “if-we-win-the-toss” debate. There is no point thinking about the things that cannot be controlled, and there is really no point in looking at capitalising solely on England's weaknesses.

India really has to play to its own strengths — bat really well, bowl with control and up its efforts in the field. It cannot afford to play the rather lax game it did in the second part of its essay against Bangladesh — England, even an England looking a bit under the weather, is not Bangladesh.

India also has to go into the first of its games against the big teams with the idea that it is also playing a psychological game. It needs to win without any dramatics or unnecessary tension and if it does so, it will work in its favour in future by playing on opponents' minds.

If it has to be the ‘new Australia', in the sense, be the team that everyone else is looking to beat, then it also must realise that everyone else will try that much harder against it.

Weather factor

So it would need to pick its final XI carefully. It's difficult to predict any team, and what makes it more of a predicament, is the deep cloud cover over Bangalore.

We are still hoping to get a full game but the weather condition might see 3-1 bowling combination.

I don't know the condition of Nehra's back, but if Sreesanth plays (and he might be useful given the condition) then he will have to bowl with far greater control. If it wasn't for the weather, India might have been better served to play with a 2-2 combine with part-timers as back-up.

Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan have bowled very well and they need to continue doing that, bowl wicket to wicket and let the batsmen frustrate themselves.

If two spinners play — and logically, it should be Harbhajan with Chawla as the second spinner for the variation he provides — they should then utilise the middle overs (the collection period) as best as they can.

Meanwhile, India's batsmen have been fairly consistent against all attacks. They would just need to play the way they normally play.

Hawkeye Communications

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