Rollercoasters

Usually they come attached with a warning that they might be unsuitable for heart patients and the like. Indian Cricket however comes unattached with any such strings but whos really complaining? The pieces are slowly beggining to fall into place - ofcourse you never know when they might be rocked again - but unlike the last close loss versus the Windies, this time around India have bounced back strongly.

Often while solving a jigsaw puzzle, all it takes to finish it off is getting that one critical piece in place and the rest takes care of itself. For anyone following Indian Cricket - it wouldnt take long to realise that the most critical piece in this team is the captain himself Rahul Dravid. Over the last year he has batted at all positions from 1 to 7 with varying degrees of success. However the one place where he has had success and more importantly the team has had success has been the no.5 position. Dravid undoubtedly is the best repairman in the Indian team and hence the best guy to go to when we need an innings to be rebuilt - hence the best guy when wickets have fallen cheaply - say a 50/3, Dravid coming in and one would have to feel reassured.

Over the last couple of years Rahul has also developed into India's best finisher - push the ball into the gaps, run the ones and twos, hit the boundaries and generally either finish off a run chase or end the inning with a flourish. So say at a 200/3 with 13 odd overs to go, Dravid would be a safe guy to have there.

Imagine the guys batting at 1-4 - would you not feel secure if you knew that Dravid was there to watch your back? One cant help but feel that a Dravid at 5 would end up creating a peaceful scenario for all around.

The other pieces have mostly fallen into place - Dhoni has been a brilliant no.6 - he has brains along with the brawn and that makes him really good. Yuvraj coming back to form and fluency basically solves the question of who will bat at 4. Ganguly has come back to international cricket with a vengeance that only bodes well for us. And that brings me to the call to reinstate the old firm of Sachin and Saurav to the top of the order. Their century partnership at Rajkot proves that they still have the coordination and fluency to bat together

A backup of Karthick, Uthappa and Sehwag (who should be whipped and caned for his runout today) looks good.

Indian batting will in all probablities continue their round trip from excellence to selfdestruction but in excellence it looks pretty much looks as good as it gets. And by subscribing to the rollercoaster of Indian cricket, one has anyway foregone the risks of heart attacks - statutory warnings be damned.

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Also posted on Sportsnob