Lord's test

My team for upcoming historic test match at Lord's

1) Gautam Gambhir
2) Rahul Dravid
3) VVS Laxman
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) Suresh Raina
6) Yuvraj Singh
7) MS Dhoni
8) Harbhajan
9) Zaheer Khan
10) Ishant Sharma
11) Munaf Patel

I know, this won't be final playing XI and definitely not in this order.
Team management won't fiddle with VVS's position as he has done extremely well at his 5 position, and similarly someone with Dravid's credentials won't be handed the opener's role just like that; and There is going to be a toss up between Munaf and Praveen, both are similar bowlers but Praveen is slightly better fielder and can also wield his bat better than Munaf, so he might a get nod ahead of him.
So in most probability, team management will stick to more traditional approach for the first test, i.e. to open with specialist openers and not fiddle with already settled batting order.
So Mukund will open with Gambhir, and Dravid & Laxman will play at their usual positions.

Also Praveen will be opted over Munaf.

But in heart of my heart, I still feel India should take a pro-active stand rather than a reactive one. Opening with one brand new opener and other coming back from long lay off doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I'm pretty sure Dravid will be called out for duty within first 5 overs, so why not open with him?

Similarly, I will prefer Munaf over Praveen coz I feel Munaf is more disciplined among the two, and in test-match batting prowess of bowlers should not be considered at all.


Lets see, how it begins, I think later in the series management might agree with my views :-)
P.S - someone share this post with Fletcher/Dhoni ;-)