Its time that the Indian Cricket Team stop taking their fan support for granted. This time, Dhoni should work, rather than making lame excuses. Sachin should play his natural game instead of developing an over-defensive mindset. like in the second innings. Indian bowlers should know that they can take wickets by making the opposition play like Praveen Kumar did, not by delivering short balls. The Indian's were overshadowed by England's performance in every field, be it batting, bowling, fitness or temperament.
BATTING
Absence of Virender Sehwag is clearly visible. The Indian opening never looked solid. In both innings, the top order failed to just stand there. Apart from class shown by Rahul Dravid, gritty second innings play by VVS Laxman and Raina, none other looked impressive. Sachin was not complete match fit(as told by MS Dhoni) and he missed out on displaying his shots in Lord's again. The middle order and lower middle order were always under pressure and fall to pieces. None of the tail-enders stood a chance against English bowling.
BOWLING
A bit unlucky in the bowling front. Zaheer's injury gave English batsmen a huge relief and Indian were a bowler short. Praveen bowler amazingly well in the first innings, swung the bowl everywhere. Ishant didn't looked in his elements. He bowled very short length deliveries and wasted energy. Harbhajan did what he could, stop runs from one end and build pressure but KP was too good for them. The early second innings went India's way. Indian bowlers made England to dance on their song till lunch. After lunch, the momentum faded and they recovered. Prior and Broad made quick runs after wards and forced India to bat 120-130 overs. Well, nobody can comment on whether Ishant's "Xtra Break" affected the rhythm or not.
It's sad that Indians are not complete match fit. I don't think anyone should be blamed rather than working on solution. Nor do I know if they deserve to be on top, but overconfidence will lead them nowhere but down, they better be aware of it.
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