The tour didn't get ignored as much as I'd thought, actually - quite unlike Raina's first captaincy stint in the tri-series with Zimbabwe and Bangladesh year. There was plenty of interest in the progress of India's next cricketing generation. Here's a list of things that have been added to our knowledge over the course of the T20I, ODIs and Tests.
- I have no idea what Shikhar Dhawan is doing in the team with Rahane and his runs lying around.
- Parthiv Patel has looked like a classy opener for months without scoring big runs. It's like he's a lefty Rohit Sharma or something.
- Badrinath only looks like he may be an effective Test player when he's playing T20's.
- Ashwin can't take wickets when no one is attacking him. He can't use the new ball for India, because we already have good new-ball bowlers.
- Rohit Sharma may have turned the corner. Where a banana skin may still be lurking. That expression never makes sense to me. Does 'turning a corner' mean revolving where you stand while you're in a corner?
- Raina shouldn't be captain - it neutralizes his midwicket-hacks. And he has registered himself for a huge English test by scoring those Test runs.
- Manoj Tiwary deserves another chance.
- Yusuf Pathan does not.
- Rahul Dravid still has some juice in him. Which is good, or else he'd be dehydrated from all the sweat. I think he's only programmed to bat in tough conditions at this point.
- Abhinav Mukund is going to have a real tough time in that first Test against England.
- Virat Kohli. Not ready. Tests. Future of India. Time on his hands. Attitude.
- Hey, Murali Vijay won CSK the IPL4 trophy.
- Praveen Kumar can be very useful in the right conditions. And he's still a tidy bowler when it's not swinging. He will be competing with Munaf and Sreesanth for the third seamer's position though... and going by Dhoni's track record, I have a suspicious suspicion about who might win that spot.
- It's great to see that Ishant is not cutting down on pace. For now.
- Sehwag, Gambhir and a great Indian spinner are conspicuous by absence.
Coming soon, to a blog near you (this one): England vs India preview.
