Is Agarkar a better batsman than Tendulkar?


Will India miss Sehwag like the deserts miss the rain? Or merely like a child with attention-deficit syndrome does an uncle who occasionally pops around with a bar of chocolate?
© AP



Greetings, Confectionery Stallers. As a preview before the salivatingly anticipated first England v India Test at Lord's, here is a multiple-choice quiz for you. No conferring. No looking up the answers on the internet. No hacking into my telephone, computer or brain to see if you can gain an unfair advantage on other readers.

Question 1: Who is going to win the England v India series?
(a) England. When the ICC Reliance player rankings for both teams are totted up, England have an advantage in batting (mostly arising from Sehwag's absence), and bowling (mostly through Anderson's superiority over Sreesanth/Praveen). They have not lost a series for two and a half years, and have in Cook a batsman in form so prime you could griddle it and serve it as a steak in a Michelin-starred restaurant. They are confident, settled, in form with bat and ball, and ambitious.

(b) India. Lord's looks set to be rudely rained on, and – brace yourselves, stats fans ‒ India have not lost anything other than the first Test in a series in England since being unceremoniously splattered like a catapulted tomato on a granite snooker table in 1974. India have not been overwhelmingly impressive in Tests in the last year, but they are tough. They won two tight Tests against Australia, recovered from a first-Test flambéing by South Africa to draw an away series, and won in West Indies without several first-choice players. They won a World Cup under unprecedented pressure of expectation. They won here in 2007. They have lost only one of their last 10 Tests against England, and only three of their last 30 against anyone.

(c) No one. It's going to be a draw. They are both very good but not flawless teams, and both are hard to beat. Besides, it is going to rain solidly for the next six weeks. It will be snowing by the time of the Oval Test. It's the end of the world, I tell you. Alastair Cook turning into the world's most unstoppable batsmen is one of the cast-iron signs of the apocalypse. It's in the Book of Revelations. If you read it backwards after a couple of bottles of whisky.
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on July 20, 2011 21:09
No comments have been added yet.


Andy Zaltzman's Blog

Andy Zaltzman
Andy Zaltzman isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow Andy Zaltzman's blog with rss.