Sense and umm...Nonsense

First the sensible part. Duncan Fletcher here says that England are not yet the best side in the world, although he 'concedes' that his side has dominated the Aussies for most of this series.

Quite true too. Eng are definitely better than Aus in this series, but lets remember Aus reached the number 1 place not just because they defeated Eng last time around. They've defeated ALL countries at home and away series, and they've done it repeatedly. So just like India did not switch positions with Aus when they defeated them at home and held them to a draw down under (or even if they had defeated them again at home), so shall Eng remain number two for quite some time yet.

And I'm surprised at the declaration of world championship of Eng by the likes of Tony Greigh and Geoff Boycott ! Boycott, during his tv commentary, went to the extent of saying that the World Series down under later in Oct would be a misnomer if Eng defeat Aus ! Wow, man, are they going overboard or what !

Ok, time for the non-sense. Here at cricinfo S Rajesh says that India gains precious little from the game against Zimbabwe. The batting was tepid, and they hardly learnt anything.

Well, sure the Indian ODI team is low on confidence, and haven't performed well in recent times, have lost most of their important matches. But that is a known fact. What, given the situation they are in, should a team do, when faced with a match situation as India was today ? Go for the glory or bust approach, or the sensible way of securing a non-spectacular but safe win. And build on that victory momentum into more important matches. This, to me seems much more sensible approach, given the poor form of some of the Indian players, the experimentational nature of the lineup, and the importance of securing a victory here today in the bigger context of the series (the entire Zim tour) and the whole new season.

I know this does not look pretty, but the rebuilding process more often is not. As long as the Indians can take it further from here, I'm all for it.