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.

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??