World Cup 2011 - Pressure is key for Indians

The prediction game has started from many ex-players on the teams who are favorites to win the World Cup 2011:

• Duncan Fletcher mentions India, England and South Africa as the favorites
• Bishen Bedi adds Australia to the list of India, England and South Africa to watch out for 
• Brian Lara has the same predictions as Bishen Bedi
• Kapil Dev thinks India, Sri Lanka, England have a good chance
• Peter Kirsten also considers India, Sri Lanka and England other than Australia as favorites
• Viv Richards thinks India is a favorite for the home win
• Arjuna Ranatunga favors his team Sri Lanka only.
• Imran Khan also considers India as the favorites
• Geoff Boycott - India, England and Sri Lanka are his contenders

No wonder, the Indian team members must ensure that they dont feel the pressure of these players as well as the billion followers within and outside the country. This is where Paddy Upton and his team will come in handy - they will have to keep the Indian team free from all such pressures.

Yusuf Pathan thus has his thoughts about pressure on the right direction. Sourav Ganguly suggests that the team should free their mind and then everything else will fall in place.

Related articles

• World Cup 2011 - Sachin Tendulkar's sixth sojourn (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• World Cup 2011 - Will India better 2007 performance? (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)

SA series - Dravid and Rice to the fore

Rahul Dravid warned the Proteas that if they prepared green-top pitches, it would back-fire on the hosts as the Indian team had a good bowling attack, probably better than their rivals. Zaheer, Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma will mostly be the line-up for the first test for India. Zaheer has done well on earlier tours while Sreesanth was instrumental in the lone win that India had on the last series. Adding Ishant Sharma to this pair makes the Indian bowling quite strong.

This is also the reason that made ex-captain Clive Rice of South Africa comment that India's attack is better. He is also wary of the knowledge that is brought to the table by Paddy Upton, Eric Simons and of course, the coach Gary Kirsten. In fact, he goes on to make India the favorites for this series. Are the Proteas down-playing their chances so that they can catch the visitors by surprise?

Harsha on the other hand, pits South Africa as the favorites based on history as well as the ability of Indians to struggle against bounce. It is again wishful hope that the trio of pace bowlers that is put forward by the Indians manage to take wickets and bring the Indians strongly into the series. He suggests that the Indian team should emulate the English team that is currently leading the Ashes 1-0 - Sehwag and Gambhir then will be the key for the Indians to post strong totals on the board.

Meanwhile, the Indians are toiling in South Africa using the different types of net pitches out there - surprisingly, Umesh Yadav of the Indian team pinging the legendary Sachin Tendulkar on the side of his helmet being the highlight of the nets so far.

Related articles

• India select squads for NZ ODIs and SA series (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• 'Team could be one of India's greatest' - Kirsten (cricinfo.com)