Your England-India XIs

"Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Laxman have been in searing form.
Dravid struck form in WI and Raina has established himself firmly.
Zaheer has been one of the best in the business.
Ishant just struck form in WI, and Bhajji has been doing very well now (did well in SA too), while Praveen just showed what he can do with swing- even in tropical conditions."

Haven't Sehwag and Gambhir been injured?
Who knows what form they'll be in on their return.
And scoring a few runs (or taking a few wickets) against a poor WIndies team hardly shows that you're in great form IMO.
Not saying that England don't have issues in this regard, but I'd say India have almost as many.

hoggy:
Really? If Trott and Cook are supposed to be the next best thing compared to Bradman simply because they shredded a poor Aussie attack (as well as SL attack) to pieces on flat pitches then I'm sure Dravid's century in tough conditions and Ishant's biting spells on a bouncy pitch in the 2nd Test can be considered a return to form.

Praveen has been consistently taking wickets (he was India's best ODI bowler at a time) and Raina has been scoring runs in all forms of the game even before that.

Praveen didn't feature in the World Cup because of injury.

As for Sehwag and Gambhir's injury, what rubbish!
Gambhir wasn't injured- he just took some time off to cure any niggles and spend some time with family.
He has been in excellent form.

Sehwag, its true, has had a surgery but simply because he went under the knife it doesn't mean he has forgotten how to bat.

One may have doubts over how well he will bat, but even at 50%, Sehwag is Sehwag and way better than most openers in the game.

Rex surely instead of making all your claims about India you simply wait and see with the rest of us/ Only 19 days to go, all you need is a little patience.
Incidently Vaughan said of 5 live today that Sehwag would not be fit ror the first test.

So, basically Rex, what you seem saying in this and other posts on the subject, is that India are perfectly prepared, are all in top form and are all brilliant.
Whereas England are being overated due to perfrmances against poor teams.
Oh well, we'll see.

So, basically Rex, what you seem saying in this and other posts on the subject, is that India are perfectly prepared, are all in top form and are all brilliant.
Whereas England are being overated due to perfrmances against poor teams.

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What a blatant lie! My last article about this series spoke about how well oiled England are!

In fact, I even said England players seem to be more well oiled than India.

I was merely responding to the point that India have selection worries and that England are more settled.

On the contrary, India are quite well settled although England appear to be the most settled.
The reason for that impression is because India's first choice players have all suffered some sort of injury before the start of each tour so that India haven't played with one XI for many Tests like England have.

For example,
Zaheer didn't play in the entire SL tour of 2010 and he also missed the 1st Test in SA in 2010.

Laxman didn't play the 2nd Test against Aus in 2010 (after the Mohali Miracle)

Gambhir didn't play the 2nd Test in SA in 2010

Dravid and Laxman didn't play in Nagpur against SA in 2010.

Sreesanth also missed the entire tour of SL in 2010.

Finally, India are now playing in WI without:
Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Zaheer and Sreesanth

What's more, Sehwag will be missing atleast the first Test against England in 2011.

So all this gives you the impression that India aren't so settled as England, but its not so.
That is all I wanted to speak about.

You merely prevaricated the truth and twisted my comments!

I understand that England too have missed some first choice players in their recent series against SL but I reckon they had a pretty settled side against Aus during the Ashes- played the last 4 Tests with the same side or is it all the 5 Tests?

That's why England appear more settled. But apart from the scare of injury, India have no selection worries- all first choice players are in form, maybe not top form (meaning they could be better). And the problem of injury is only to Sehwag, who may well recover early.

India are slight favourites according to me.I wasnt impressed at all with our bowling against SL.We were way too inconsistent.We lacked the intensity we had shown in the Ashes.Maybe we will raise our game against india but as long as we have Broad in our side we havent got a chance to bowl India out.I cant see Swann being overly effective against India.We might be heavily reliant on Tremmers and Jimmy.Thats unfair on those two.They are good bowlers but they are hardly Marshall,Ambrose or Mcgrath.We cant expect them to run through India.We need a quality 3rd seamer to give ourselves a chance to bowl India out.I expect 3 high scoring draws and 1 result at Trent Bridge.Whoever wins the key sessions will take the series.

I would pick Onions.But that doesnt mean we will automatically become a better side.We will have to bowl with exceptional discipline for long periods.

For somone whos Englands biggest fan your very negative
The thing is with Englands attack we have bowlers like Tremmlet and Anderson that can go bang bang bang and take wickets in bundles..
On a 5th day pitch with some wear and tear Swann will have chance to take wickets too.Say England have a 300+ lead on the final day the pressure will be on to bat out the day..

What is so negative?read my last line.