That sinking feeling

The more I think about it, the more the prospects of the Indian cricket team in Ireland and England trouble me. The bowling attack does look very inexperienced (it'd have been better for RP Singh if he could have just spent all his time playing county cricket till now), and I'm worried about what is going to happen when they go up against a decent English batting line-up at home, one equipped with fair amounts of test cricket experience this summer. India look all too reliant on a batting line-up that needs to deliver in huge amounts if they are to have any chance of putting pressure on England, and traditionally that hasn't happened away (and when it does start to happen, it happens too late on tour). Of the two notable omissions, Sehwag and Harbhajan, I think India will miss Sehwag more in cricketing terms. But overall, India will miss their general combativeness.

Sigh; last year, when I looked at the cricketing calendar and saw the South African, English and Australian tours lined up, my immediate thought was that this represented a golden opportunity for the Indian team to move into the next bracket if senior batsmen and junior bowlers came to the party. That hope fell apart in South Africa, and while the English tour hasn't even started, as an Indian fan its hard to feel too optimistic.