India in England - 2014: Will India Make it Count this time?
Well, it has been a while since we started a thread for a Cricket series involving India, thanks to Sachin's retirement, IPL and a couple of low-profile series across the sub-continent.
I guess, it would not be a bad time to start one for the England series, which promises to be an interesting one, given two inexperienced sides trying desperately to stitch some test wins and identify some stars for the future.
Will India Re-Invent itself in overseas conditions?
India's tour of England 2011 was a complete disaster and signalled the start of the end for the Sachin-Dravid-Laxman-Sehwag-Bhajji-Zaheer era.
India went on to lose in Australia, another whitewash. These twin-disasters proved to be nightmare for Indian cricket fans as it appeared as if we were in the 1990's again, an era where Indian Cricket teams appeared like lambs waiting for slaughter, the moment they take a flight and travel outside the subcontinent.
Sourav Ganguly's aggressive captaincy and intent helped India register memorable test wins in West Indies, England and Australia.
Rahul Dravid went one-step further and led India to test series wins in in England, West Indies and also registered India's first test win in South Africa.
The batting fab-five of Sehwag, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman and Sourav looked invisible and bowlers such as the legendary Kumble, Zaheer and Harbhajan bowled match winning spells abroad.
MSD who took over the reins from Kumble, began promisingly with a test series win in New Zealand before leading India through the twin-disasters.
The captain has survived from the disastrous tour and would be looking for a better show from a new and an inexperienced side, this time around.
He would be hoping for some of his young batsmen to announce themselves to the world, just as how Sachin did in 1992 or how Ganguly/Dravid showed in 1996 or how Sehwag in 2002.
Virat Kohli and Cheteswar Pujara are the 2 stalwarts in the batting line-up while others including Shikher, Vijay, Rohit and Rahane have a lot to prove.
Bowling, well, having Ishant Sharma as your most-experienced spearhead speaks a lot about India's fast bowling stocks right now. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar should be the one to lead the attack while Mohammad Shami would also be a handful in English conditions.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravidra Jadeja both seem to switch on and off between good performances and some pretty average/poor displays. Consistency is missing from India's leading spinners.
England - Travelling in the Same Boat, as India!
England are coming off probably their worst streak since the team of the 1990's. A clean sweep Ashes loss in Australia and now a home loss to Srilanka raising questions on the team's potential. More importantly, England are without 3 of their most important test match winners viz., Trott, Pierterson and Swann.
But their bowling especially at home conditions should be menacing enough for India's unproven batting order.
All in all, an interesting series ahead that should do its bit to rejuvenate and rekindle the interests of Indian fans elsewhere and here in Hub.