ODI PITCH

True but 90% of the pitches around the world are like Lords and Headlingley so dont they need to find a way winning games on flat tracks?

I'm not sure it's as easy to prepare wickets to order as some believe. If a groundsman is preparing a wicket in order to have it right on a specific day and he get torrential rain for the two days before that date, it becomes a lottery.
As for green tops and a little rain around, I'm sure Zaheer Khan will like that idea just as Asif and Aamer did last summer.

Good auestion. I agree with Kash.

One would get the impression that England are the best when the pitch swings but that is not so.

Any decent swing bowler would enjoy such pitches and the reason why England have won overwhelmingly on two such pitches in this series is not because England have swing-bowlers while SL does not.

It's merely because SL bowlers are inexperienced in English conditions.

But bowlers like Zaheer or even Praveen Kumar (who it must be remembered starred in the two finals of the CB series in 2008, dismissing batsmen of the calibre of Gilchrist and Ponting cheaply even when they were a force) would baffle batsmen with swing.

Similarly, although it might seem a team like India is invincible in batsmen-friendly conditions, considering the ease with which they won the World Cup Final chasing a big total, one must remember the manner in which Strauss scored a marvelous hundred at Bangalore and helped tie a massive Indian score.

So conditions can help both sides so there's no point in such discussion. England should just try to develop themselves overall and look to cover all bases.

Right now, I see a Test side playing in ODIs.
They don't have a yorker specialist like Malinga but a guy like Broad doling out short-balls in the hope of roughing up batsmen.

But such a ploy in ODIs is hard to keep up due to the 20 overs of field restrictions as well 10-over rule for all bowlers and 1-bouncer rule.

Also, there is no bonafide explosive player like Sehwag/Dhoni in the entire batting lineup.

Pietersen is at best a Tendulkar-pace guy, although not Tendulkar-class.

Cook scored brilliantly in the 4th ODI but you have got to admit there was no pressure and the SL bowlers were trying hard to find the right line/length and constantly erring, to the benefit of the batsmen.

He may not bat the same way in the next ODI or forever. England must seriously consider training having an explosive batsman in their lineup. Right now only Morgan is there.

And England must not specifically make a push for green wickets or flat ones either. The present mix is well and good.

It was the same when India toured England in 2007- for the 7 ODI series.