Poor Windies batting effort ruins India's preparation

Its not often one complains when you bowl a team out for 85 and win a game with more than 30 overs to spare. Yet the nature of the preparatory games leaves one hoping that this did not happen and that the Indians had a better target to chase and its batsmen got more time in the middle. However, the team should be brimming in confidence as it now starts the tournament, definitely as one of the favorites.

Munaf Patel has been under the scanner even since his performance in South Africa in the third test, particularly when Gavaskar and co. picked him out for ridicule at every given opportunity. However, he has clearly underlined his value in the two games and could turn out to be India's trump card in this tournament. I definitely think he is an ideal first change bowler, as Dravid has used him so far and I believe he should also finish his quota before the slog overs.

At the end of the game, I think 10/11 players for the first ODI against Bangladesh pick themselves: Ganguly, Uthappa (really don't see Sehwag pipping him to the opening slot for the first game), Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Dravid, Dhoni, Harbhajan, Agarkar, Zaheer and Munaf. That leaves just one slot and I think that is going to be a toss up between Sehwag, Karthik and Pathan. And if India wins that game, then there may be scope for further experimentation against Bermuda.

The manner in which Sehwag keeps getting out ought to be a big concern for Dravid and the team, especially after Vengsarkar publicly announced that Sehwag was selected only on the insistence of Dravid. Today was the best opportunity for him to find some confidence with a good 30 runs or so to his credit. Pathan too had a poor outing, given the difficulty he had in finding his radar and pace. However, the three wickets should have given him some confidence and I actually vote for him to play at #7 against Bangladesh ahead of Karthik and Sehwag, though I am pretty sure Indians will still go in with Sehwag in the XI.

All things considered, Indians still seem to be the best team on view, at least based on the warm up games. How this translates to results when the actual tournament gets underway remains to be seen.

Elsewhere, Pakistan easily outplayed South Africa on a difficult pitch. South Africa have had a far from ideal start to their campaign and have struggled in both their matches. They must be hoping to get their act together as quickly as possible.

Australia got the better of England too after England failed to consolidate on a good partnership between Vaughan and Bell. And Gilchrist and Watson got Aussies off to a great start in reply. Gilchrist used the match in a perfect manner to spend some time in the middle after a long break from the game and his knock today must be given the Aussies a lot of confidence. Slowly, the pieces are falling in place and I think McGrath, Tait, Clark, Hogg and Watson should be the main bowlers for the first game. It will be interesting to see if Hayden walks to his opening slot when he recovers or whether they persist with Watson at the top. And finally, it looks like Hussey is having a lean trot for the first time in international cricket and will be interesting to see how he tackles it.