Thursday, October 20, 2011

This is not payback

Welcome to India, laddie!
Over the last two weeks, there has been an inundation of reports on how the on-going series between India and England is a payback series, for India to extract some revenge over their savage manhandling in the recent Test series in England. Given the way the series has gone so far, the tag is being gleefully justified by most of the media outlets, even the English ones.
What a load of rubbish.
Winning an ODI series at home against a 5th ranked side (4th at the start of the series) is in no way the perfect riposte to the humiliating whitewash in a Test series in the opposition’s backyard, which by the way resulted in conceding the Number 1 crown as well. Sure, the victories in the first two ODIs of this series has somewhat made Indian supporters cheerful again; but we always knew that England were generally rubbish in the 50 over version. The ODI series in England would have been tighter if it wasn’t for old friends Duckworth and Lewis, who had to poke their noses in just about every game of that series. So, defeating England in this series, even in the absence of so many regulars, is not payback enough.
The chance for a real payback comes next year when, apparently, England tour India for a Test series. England used their home advantage well to inflict heavy defeat on an under-prepared Indian side in the last series; therefore, it only makes sense that India churn out some ‘turners’ to test the adaptability of this English side. If and only if India whitewash England then, I will accept it as payback. Till then, will just have to do with tossing them around in ODIs. Sigh.
PS: This has nothing to do with the rest of this article, but had to address this -
Trott’s record in ODIs is better than Bell’s, both in terms of average and strike rate. So get over his inclusion already!
Why is everyone piling on poor Trott, bru?
Benny for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Benny on Twitter @tracerbullet007

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