India thumped a reckless Bangladesh by 6 wickets and earned a bonus point too. Well, that was expected. This Bangladesh team is immensely capable of losing any match from any stage. They play Test matches as if they were playing ODIs and ODIs as if they were in T-20 matches. No wonder they rarely manage to last an entire innings in any form of Cricket.
Team India's real challenge will be to beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There are chances India might just about manage to ward of Pakistan. But beating the Lankan Lions in their own den looks beyond India from what we have seen. Why? Apart from the absence of Yuveraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar, there are 5 more reasons.
1] Virendar Sehwag: He might have conjured up a winning act while crushing the Tigers' tail. But he is yet to reach match fitness. His body language looks as if he is still 5 - 6 matches away from Sehwagging. This series will be over by then. Best of luck for the Test series, if the Monsoon allows any play at all.
2] Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma: Howsoever talented they might be, both these guys can't carry Indian batting on their shoulders; at least not yet. Rohit still is 'Nohit' when it comes to crunch matches. If these are the No. 3 and No. 4 batters for us, Dhoni and Raina will have a lot of work to do in this series because of Reason Number 1.
3] Suresh Raina: For no fault of his, he will be one of the reasons for India's misery. Coming in at 6 is such a waste of talent. Ideally he should get more overs to bat. But if we send him at No. 3 and he fails, we are doomed because of Reason Numbers 1 and 2.
4] Zaheer and Nehra: These guys had their peak days during 2003 World Cup. Don't we have good enough replacements even after 7 long years? India's pace attack looks like a Popgun attack compared to Shoib, Asif and Amer and Malinga and Co. Mashrafe looked more menacing than any of our pace bowlers.
5] Sri Lanka: The Lions are almost always invincible in their own Den. They very rarely lose on home turf because only Lions know how to bat and bowl there! Even if their Stars fail, some unknown faces will come and take away matches from opponents. And a fit as a fiddle Malinga is on fire now!
If Dhoni's boys still manage to buck the trend and break a 15 year old jinx; I shall be the happiest. But I am prepared for the worst. Well, in reality we have got used to it. Right?
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