Hi friends everybody are very eager for the first of the seven ODI matches between India and Australia which starts on 25th October.Well after a fantastic 2 weeks of the inaugural Airtel Champions League 2009, again National teams participate in a 50 over tournament and this time the most important factor is that, this series can be called as "The Hunt for No:1".

Well, before discussing anything let me give you the exact schedule where and when the matches are going to take place.

1)October 25 , Sunday,"Reliance Stadium" in Vadodara

2)October 28,Wednesday, " Vidarbha C.A. Ground" in Nagpur

3)October 31,Saturday," Feroz Shah Kotla '" in Delhi

4)November 2,Monday, "Punjab C.A. Stadium " in Mohali

5)November 5,Thursday, " Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium " in Hyderabad

6)November 8,Sunday, "Nehru Stadium" in Guwahati

7)November 11,Wednesday, "Wankhede Stadium " in   Mumbai.

Prior to this match Bret Lee suggested that they could beat India 7- 0 and retains their top spot.If India wins this series they will become No 1 ODI team in the world

The present ODI ranking of the top 8 countries  and the ratings are as follows

1)    Australia             128   
2)   India                    124   
3)   South Africa        121   
4)   New Zealand       110   
5)   Pakistan               109   
6)   England                106       
7)  Sri Lanka              106   
8)   West Indies          76

But our strength is Sachin,Sewag opening partneship and with the return of Sehwag India is a strong side.But still we have a problem,i.e, Yuvraj may not be available for the opening match and Dhoni was also suffering from a injury when he was hit by Munaf Patel bowling during the practice.

The BCCI selection committee, under its Chairman Srikanth have selected the team for the first 2 ODI and these includes

i)MS Dhoni (C,WC)

ii)Gautam Gambhir

iii)Harbhajan Singh

iv)Ravindra Jadeja

v)Virat Kohli

vi)Praveen Kumar

vii)Ashish Nehra

viii)Munaf Patel

ix)Suresh Raina

x)Virender Sehwag

xi)Ishant Sharma

xii)Sachin Tendulkar

xiii)Sudeep Tyagi

xiv)Yuvraj Singh

Most probably Yuvraj will miss the opening match and I feel that Tyagi must get a place instead of Ishant as Tyagi is consistent and also very economic bowler.So Tyagi,Munaf and Ashish will do a good job  along with Bhajji.Along with them part time bowlers like Raina,Sewag,Kholi will also be helpful

Many question arises regarding the omission of Rahul Dravid, but I feel that even if he was included in the squad he might not be in the playing eleven as the first down slot will be occupied by Gambir.But still i guess he might get chances for the rest of the ODI's, based on the players performance in the first 2 ODI's.

When it comes to batting most probably Sewag will open with Sachin and they will be followed by Gambir at one down.Now after that the remaining position may be occupied by Raina,Kohli,Jadeja and Dhoni.As Yuvi may not play in 1st ODI, I guess Jadeja who can bat and Bowl may take his place.

So my team for the 1st ODI, if Yuvi not playing, are as follows

1)Sewag

2)Sachin

3)Gambir

4)Raina

5)Kohli

6)Dhoni

7)Jadeja

8)Bhajji

9)Tyagi

10)Munaf

11)Ashish

Other options includes praveen in place of Munaf and Ishant in place of Tyagi.

So lets hope our team starts on a winning note and all the best to Team INDIA.

JAIHIND

• Written by Raaghavan Krishnamurthy.
• In category Cricket.
• 15 years ago.

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