Ho-hum and no surprise

I watched some pretty uninspiring cricket this morning, all the while thinking, "I got up early to watch this?". Slow wicket, left-arm spinners wheeling away, dodgy light, two batsmen (sometimes ranked amongst the finest strokeplayers of their generation) nudging and nurdling away for singles and the occasional boundary. It was enough to send me back to bed - so I did just that and caught up on some much-needed sleep. Now, awake again, I read the day's report to find out that most of the day was like that. Ah, well, hopefully it'll be more interesting when India bowl. I'm looking forward to seeing the two Singhs, RP and VRV bowl on this track (no, I'm not joking, it'll be an interesting test of their character).

Meanwhile news has it that Munaf Patel is on his way back to be replaced by Delhi's Ishant Sharma. Frankly, I suspect Patel is history. He keeps getting injured and he doesn't strike me as the kind of player who has the gumption to work hard enough to get back into shape and return match-fit. He has always lacked fire, and if not his injuries, then his usual lackadaisical, lazy, shambling attitude was going to do him in someday. I'm always glad to see Delhi boys make it to the national level, but I'm not going to go ga-ga over Ishant Sharma just yet. What little I saw of him last year, didn't make enough of an impression on me, and besides the history of Indian quicks is too depressing to bear thinking about.