So many things to say.

India won its game, as predicted. Sehwag scored a 0 instead of a double hundred, as I expected.

Sachin was comfortable and confident and got out to a soft dismissal. As usual.

Ganguly was clueless and he should have gone on 0 (easy slip catch dropped) and 4 (a tough catch in the gully dropped). But in the end, what he puts up on the board is more important. And in the end, time spent in the middle has not substitute. Good for him.

I slept off after the first 45 minutes or so. Later found out that Dravid scored a century.

This guy, I am telling you. Don’t know what he eats and what he does, but he is redefining consistency. No wonder he is The Wall or Mr. Dependable.

Hats off to you, sir.

I saw some of the initial bowling and man, Irfan Pathan is awesome. The way he is able to swing the ball is amazing to watch. He is a good prospect for India in the long term and hopefully he keeps fit and keeps bowling for India for a long time.

Of course, the rest of the innings was nothing much to shout about, except the fact that Sachin pocketed 3 wickets. Did not see how he took them (but I have the innings taped, so I will watch it later today ;-) ), but 3 wickets is quite a handful.

India has started the season 1-0. Let’s hope for more in the win column.

It’s going to be a long season behind the wickets

Can’t wait. Though I must say I am not so excited about India facing the likes of UAE, Bangladesh and HK.

But looking ahead to the major series - Australia at home and South Africa at home, for tests, it is important to talk about the openers.

I understand that Sehwag turned into a decent opener despite being a middle order batsman. I am feeling bad for Chopra who has been conveniently pushed out of the squad with all the talk about Yuvi opening with Sehwag.

First of all, I have no problem with ‘middle order’ batsmen becoming openers. But talking about Yuvi as a test opener for the Indian national team without truly testing him in that position is unfair to him as well as Chopra. He is kinda set up for failure and Chopra is unnecessarily thrown out of the playing XI.

Of course, time will tell what the real deal is, but on paper, it does not make sense to shake the existing XI, except tweaking the bowling combination based on fitness as well as pitch conditions.

But Ganguly’s talk of Yuvraj being a ‘class act’ and one that ‘cannot be ignored’ is again a pointer to what I think is favoritism. ;-)

But their choice for World XI’s to face Australia had poor Dravid as wicketkeeper.

Also, VVS ended up being 12th man in the test team because Kallis is an all rounder. But Sehwag as a test opener? Wow!

Wonder what those guys were thinking??

Considering that the Indian cricket season is about to start, this would be a great topic…who has been more valuable to the Indian cricket team in his career?

On one hand, when Tendulkar started, he was young and he showed the signs of never-say-die from the get go. He has been the pillar of the Indian side for 15 years now. Of course, in the past few years, he’s had some other pillars to help him, but in the first 10 years of his career, he’s been the one who has scored the runs for India. In fact, he has also been instrumental in Indian wins with the ball (Hero cup against South Africa - the last over). There is of course no question about his winning matches for India with his bat.

And on the other hand, there is the rock solid Dravid. He came late to the team, at least in comparison to Sachin, but he is now almost indispensible. I would hate to woof him before the season starts, but that is what he is. The Wall. Dependable. Classic. Whatever you say. But, he has struggled a lot in one dayers. And he has started blossoming only in the past few years. He was good in general from the start. But he has started becoming all the solid stuff only in the past few years. I would not hesitate to agree with the tags he has got today, but only looking at the most recent form. Not for his career. And once again, the knock that Sachin gets for India not winning much, should apply to Dravid too. India just didn’t win much in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Right?

Of course, this is not to say that one is bad and the other is good. Both are GREAT. Both are needed for India to succeed. But to score 13,000 runs in one day matches and almost 10,000 in test matches is no mean feat.

My opinion is that today both are too valuable to the team. But over a career, Sachin has been more valuable to the Indian team than Dravid has been.