Walking wickets talk

A 'walking wicket' is how Dravid and Collingwood have been described of late.

Collingwood walked into what might have been his last Test innings, and rescued a crumbling England in the company of Kevin 'Ego (isn't it refreshing to have Andre back?)' Pietersen.

The noise for Dravid's head is not that loud, but the irritation among the fans was clear. Ok, he hit a 90 there and a hundred here, but for a team challenging the top Test team, such a confused batsman at number 3 was a weight on the shoulders.

The subtext that King Cricket talks about, referring to Collingwood's repeated portrayal as a gritty, doughty one, is equally applicable to Dravid - who like Collingwood has broken the mould (or "the Wall") from time to time.

Dravid made some runs today, finally looking comfy against Mendis and Murali. His innings was pretty much a press release that he will only go kicking and screaming into retirement. Which is certainly good for Indian cricket, because the incumbent will have to keep doing well domestically and in ODIs. Gambhir is proof.

Rohit can wait. Owais must wait.

India morph into New Zealand

The much-hyped Indian bowling looked like Paul Collingwood and Dmitri Mascarenhas were bowling at both ends when Kumar and Jayawardene were batting. Actually, make that Chris Harris and Gavin Larsen. An unhelpful pitch quickly turned Munaf, Pathan and Praveen into a bunch of trundlers, who will rely on tight bowling to make the batsman take a risk and perhaps get a wicket. And if the batsman are not so inclined, we need lightning striking twice in the same place (as it did today) to break such a partnership.
If Zaheer and Arpy don't play, we need to play Sreesanth. If for some reason, all three cannot play, Dhoni needs to take a gamble and play Chawla. India need at least two bowlers who can hustle a set batsmen in the middle overs.