Before the start of the Dharamsala fixture, India had already proved me wrong by recovering from their Rajkot reverse to win three ODIs on the trot and claim the series. However, credit to Ian Bell for steering England to a seven-wicket triumph to end their on-off tour on a high.
I've always liked Bell as a player in all three formats and, while he has off-days like anyone else, the Warwickshire man continues to prove while he simply cannot be left out of England's line-up. He doesn't do the eye-catching stuff like KP, Morgan or Buttler, but when you need an anchor who also keeps the scoreboard ticking, Bell is yer man.
Only Suresh Raina scored more runs across the five matches and duly snatched the Player of the Series award. However, this was perhaps overshadowed by the arguments about the selection of Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma over Rahane (correct) and Pujara (more debatable). Ravi Jadeja had a good all-round series but Kohli and Yuvi were more hit-and-mis.
On the bowling front, Steven Finn improved as January wore on, while Jade Dernbach had a nightmare. He may have earrings and tattoos but as a strike bowler he couldn't take wickets and as a death bowler he was hideously expensive. Nice to see Chris Woakes get a couple of opportunities and I do hope his Test debut is not far away. The battle between him and Bresnan for the number eight spot in 2013 will be interesting.
Top wicket-taker of the tournament and most economic bowler for England was, perhaps surprisingly, James Tredwell. Not exactly seen as the future of spin in this country, he nonetheless did his job in the middle of the innings as Graeme Swann's off-break deputy. The jury's still out on Samit Patel, just as it is on Ravi Bopara who of course wasn't in India. Joe Root did his future prospects no harm, though, even if his strengths surely lie in longer-form cricket.
Overall, the sides have been fairly well matched over the past three months. The T20 series was shared but told us nothing, India enjoyed some success in the 50-over format but it was England's superb first Test series win on Indian soil for decades that will give the Flower-Cook-Giles unit the biggest boost of all as a two-month spell in New Zealand beckons. The Black Caps will surely fail to pose as many problems as Dhoni, Tendulkar, Kohli and co.
