Well, it's all about England now. After gettin a bloody nose in the First Test, they have bounced back superbly, leaving India's confidence in tatters. Their Ahmedabad victory proved they're not a bad team but the decisive defeats at Mumbai and now Fortress Kolkata also revealed their soft underbelly.
There have been a few successes. Ojha has proved he is more than a T20 specialist but his spin partner Ashwin has looked a better batsman than bowler. Yuvraj and Harbajhan Singh weren't successful in their restoration to the side and they, alongside fellow veteran Zaheer Khan have been jettisoned for the Nagpur finale. I'm not writing off their careers just yet. I fancy the 'Turbanator' will get his 100th appearance and remain the highest Test wicket-taker still in the game for a bit longer. Yuvi's character may yet be useful in the dressing room while India's cupboard of good seam bowlers is sadly bare at the moment.
Maybe Parvinder Awana can prove me wrong in the next match. He got the nod after some useful performances for Delhi but he's not exactly fast. OK, neither is Zaheer these days, but on the right wicket he could cause problems. Leggie Piyush Chawla made a real splash in his teens in India and also for Sussex but he failed to impress at international level. Like Harbajhan, he can bat a bit, too, and may have extra variation to make KP's life difficult. But what about Alastair Cook? Nothing seems to faze him. Neither bowler nor captaincy has deflected him from the day job of scoring runs, and loads of them. Compton is finding his feet and Trott is due a big innings.
Ravindra Jadeja is of a similar age to Chawla but his all-rounder credentials have ensured more ODIs for India. This will be his first Test appearance, though, and he has leapfrogged A team regulars to make the Nagpur squad. This is presumably on the back of not one, but two triple-centuries for Saurashtra in the last month or so, allied to some slow left-arm wickets. I wish him good luck, because Anderson, Finn, Swann and Panesar have an air of effortless superiority at the moment and they are also imbued with a spirit of togetherness I didn't think possible while Pietersen was amongst them. It helps when KP's tweets are pro-England.
While many eyes will be on the new recruits, Nagpur also offers another opportunity for the tried and tested legends of the Indian batting order to show what we all know they can do, yet have not done so for ages. Gambhir, Sehwag and Tendulkar have rarely sparkled and Kohli, in his six innings so far, has yet to pass 20! Captain MSD has also disappointed. Only Pujara has shione with the bat, and let's hope they weren't two flashes in the pan.
India can't sit back but this new England of Flower and Cook will go for a decisive 3-1 series triumph rather than bask in record-breaking back-to-back wins in India. They must be favourites to pile on the pressure on Dhoni et al.
