DUNNERS DELIVERY: What an advert for Test cricket

WOW! What a great advert for the five day form of the game of cricket.

And it really did have that Ashes 2005 series feel about it.

The hype, the atmosphere and the tense periods of play, the bowling spells....I could go on.

But it was a shame there was really only one team in it.

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After KP’s astonishing knock, you felt England were going to roll them over at the home of cricket - and that they did.

You have to say it was all down to preparation and bit of bad luck for the Indians.

Zaheer Khan hobbling off would be like Jimmy Anderson being injured for England.

He left the visitors’ bowling attack rather weak and I had more than a couple of text messages on Friday saying ‘Is that really Dhoni bowling?!’

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Then the little master Sachin Tendulkar got a virus, Gautam Gambhir got hit on the arm, the list goes on.

But as they kept saying on Sky Sports, the Indians were a bit undercooked.

Most of them did not go to the Caribbean, giving themselves a rest after the IPL.

Yes, all players deserve a rest once in a while and the international schedule is an intense one.

But no matter who you are, you need time in the middle.

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When England went to Australia last winter, they had great preparation and went out to win every match.

India wanted to use 13-14 players when they played Somerset in their one game before the Test series started, and then they did not look to bothered about the game or the result.

If Zaheer Khan had bowled flat out during that game, would he have got injured in this Test match?

I would not say India were complacement or even over confident about playing England, but they were under prepared they have to step up a few gears to compete with this brilliant and ruthless England side.

Bring on the final three Tests.

I can’t wait.

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