England v India Test Match Cricket Betting
England v India Test Match Betting 2007
Although England completed a 3-0 rout of West Indies recently, the series was dubbed boring, drab, dismal, and lacklustre by the media. Now India are soon to take on England in a test series on English soil and cricket betting lovers are wondering what kind of tour this will turn out to be.
Without a coach at the helm, Dravid has a tough job on his hands. He?s hinted that it's up to the seniors to guide the team and he?ll be looking to the Big Three in Indian cricket - himself, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to do the damage. They have scored a total of 25,851 Test runs between them with Tendulkar now entering the 18th year of his international career and Dravid and Ganguly their 11th.
Tendulkar's form and fitness could be said to be suspect - in his last 17 Test innings, the Mumbai batsman has scored only 598 runs and his two centuries were made against mediocre performers, Bangladesh. And if the tour of Bangladesh is rightfully ignored, Tendulkar has scored only 324 runs in his last 13 Test innings - an average of just short of 25 runs per innings.
Ganguly's two half centuries in South Africa last November were his only Test appearances since he made a comeback. He's a classy batsmen and who knows, perhaps the English wickets will be to his liking. If so, he could prove to be a big factor in India's success.
"Sourav has been scoring well and there?ll be opportunities for him to count on his England experience", says Dravid. ?This tour should give him good reason to repeat those efforts.?
Could Dravid be the key?
Dravid himself has been in pretty decent form with a couple of recent valuable knocks but will his good run (excuse the pun) continue? Of course he also has the pressure of the captaincy which has been a matter of national debate across India, especially during the World Cup. The upcoming tour to England will only add to his burden and coupled with the fact that India has no coach at present and no recent major successes, this series will be a difficult one.
But there is one other factor we shouldn?t overlook? the fact that this is to be Dravid?s last tour to England. Could this be the motivation the Indian side badly needs?
"Winning the test series will make this tour most memorable" Dravid told reporters, "as it will be my last in England."
Dravid scored 95 in his test debut at Lord's in 1996 but India lost the series. In 2002, they managed to draw the series in England.
As individuals, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly will find the English tour extremely important in terms of recapturing their form and touch? and if they, and the side's talented youngsters who've recently become part of this team, fire on all cylinders, we may well be privy to a wonderfully exciting cricket series.
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