Thursday, 11 December 2008

1st Test, 1st Day: England vs. India


How would you feel if you were playing cricket with these people watching??

Thursday, 4 December 2008

England Return to Mumbai

Kevin Pietersen has recently said that he did not in any way persuade any of the England Test squad to return to India after the terror attack in Mumbai, although he said that if necessary, there would be a collective decision to come home. He said, "It's fantastic if the guys to want to go and rub shoulders together with India at a time of need." He also said ,"It's a huge stance by this England team to jump on a plane and go and do the business." The 23-man squad will travel to Mumbai on Monday following their landing in Abu Dhabi.

Because of the risk of airborne attacks, Indian airports have been put on high alert.



Stuart Broad is staying in England to receive treatment for a hamstring injury, but will join up with the squad in Chennai where he will have a fitness test. Ryan Sidebottom is missing the tour altogether after not recovering from a side strain picked up in the one-day series.

This is the squad for the two match test series.

KP Pietersen (capt, Hampshire), TR Ambrose (wkt, Warwickshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), IR Bell (Warwickshire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), PD Collingwood (Durham), AN Cook (Essex), A Flintoff (Lancashire), SJ Harmison (Durham), MS Panesar (Northants), MJ Prior (wkt, Sussex), OA Shah (Middlesex), AJ Strauss (Middlesex), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire).

Performance squad: RS Bopara (Essex), MA Davies (Durham), RH Joseph (Kent), A Khan (Kent), SI Mahmood (Lancashire), SR Patel (Nottinghamshire), LE Plunkett (Durham), OP Rayner (Sussex), A Richardson (Middlesex), AU Rashid (Yorkshire).


India have given Yuvraj Singh one more chance to resurrect his test career after being slelcted for India's 15-man squad for the series against England. He is expected to replace Surav Ganguly's place at number 6. Pragan Ojha, a left-arm spinner has also been recalled and M Vijay and S Badrinath have been kept as reserve batsmen. RP Singh, the left-arm seamer, has been dropped to be replaced by Ojha


Here is the India squad:

India squad: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, S Badrinath, Pragyan Ojha.




Hugh Morris, the ECB chairman, says that England will return to India, following the terrorist attacks.