Kris Srikkanth has given him his vote of confidence. T20 World Cup saw him smack 6×6. Dada, as a term, is used variedly in India. For the Bengalis it means elder brother. In Indian slang it means a gangster. In the Hindi language, Dada is a grandfather.

For England, after Rajkot and Indore, he is all of the above. Yuvraj Singh is officially England cricket team’s Dada (gangsta/grand-daddy). He won India the Natwest Trophy once. He won India a crucial match in the Twenty20 World Cup. Put one Yuvi against 11 English players, and they would still end up losing miserably. OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit. But on current events you can’t blame me.

ODI 1. Yuvraj smashes 138 not out from only 78 balls.
ODI 2. Yuvraj smashes 118 from 122 balls and then takes 4 for 28 from 10 overs.

2 matches. 2 centuries. 2 man of the match awards. As the old Indian saying goes “Bhagwan deta hai to chhapad phad ke deta hai“. Ie: When God gives he gives in bucket loads.

Is he the new Dada? I will leave that for you to decide.

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Man of the match Yuvraj scored a second consecutive century and also took 4 crucial wickets to take India to its second win of the series. Birthday boy Yousuf Pathan scores a scintillating maiden half centure and helped his team reach 292. For England, Owais Shah scored a fifty and there was some awesome power hitting from Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff. They just left it too late for the big hitting but the 3rd power play produced 59 runs.

India: 292/9. Yuvraj Singh 118. Gautham Gambhir 70. Yusuf Pathan 50*.
England: 238 all out. Andrew Flintoff 43. Yuvraj Singh 4 wickets

Indian Batting (upto Yuvraj’s wicket)

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Watch the full highlights of India vs England 1st ODI. Yuvraj smashed an unbeaten century. Sehwag and Gambhir got India to a flying start. Then Zaheer and Munaf bowled a terrific opening spell to get 4 England wickets before they could score 50. Hugely convincing and a completely one-sided game.

Short Highlights of First Inning

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Looking at the recent India-Sri Lanka test series one can see that pretty soon we will be seeing a majosr shift in the Indian test team’s composition. The Fab 4, aka Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman, have not contributed at all to the team’s win in the second test. Its been 5 consecutive failures by these 4 talented and legendary batsmen.

Tendulkar is coming back from an injury so he would likely take some time to get into some form. Ganguly should hang up his boots and leave now with his pride intact. Laxman still has a couple of years left and needs to get into some sort of form sooner rather than later especially with the Aussies coming to town soon.

Dravid is the main worry for me here. The wall has certainly shown a lot of cracks ever since he renounced his captaincy last year. He has been out of form ever since. I am not sure how long the Indian board is going to wait before axing him from the team.

So, to the future. The Indian team’s bench strength has never looked so promising at it looks right now. Here is my team for the future (next 2 years):

1. Gautam Gambhir - Continues to prove his mettle against all oppositions in all forms of the game.
2. Virender Sehwag - No denying him now that he has found his form.
3. Rohit Sharma - The future wall of Indian cricket, in my opinion.
4. Sachin Tendulkar - What can you say about this man
5. VVS Laxman - Wristy elegance not found anywhere else now.
6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Indian cricket’s future.
7. Robin Uthapa/Yuvraj Singh/Irfan Pathan - Pick your choice depending on form and conditions.
8. Harbhajan Singh - Almost 300 test wickets. Need I say anymore.
9. Piyush Chawla/Pragyan Ojha/Amit Mishra - One of these will have to support Bhajji.
10. Zaheer Khan - He is back and he is meaner and leaner than ever.
11. Ishant Sharma - Indian cricket’s true express fast bowler. Ricky Ponting anyone.

Then there are Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Singh Gony, and more waiting in the lines.

Post your comments on your future Indian Test team.

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A comprehensive 140 run win over Pakistan has ensured that India will be in the finals even though they have a match to play against hosts Bangladesh. Both Sehwag and Gambhir continued with their red-hot form in the recently concluded IPL.

Full Highlight India Inning

Fall OF Wicket

Gambhir’s wicket

Shewag’s Wicket

Pathan’s Wicket

Raina’s Wicket

Pakistan’s All Wickets

—————-EXTRAS—————-

1st Powerplay

Sehwag out n called back

Gambhir 50

3rd Powerplay

Shewag’s 50

Yuvaraj 50

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