Eden Gardens wicket will favour neither spinners nor pacemen | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Eden Gardens wicket will favour neither spinners nor pacemen

ByRavi Shastri
Feb 14, 2010 12:45 AM IST

My gut feeling is that Eden Gardens will favour neither spin nor pace and it will take mighty resolve from the hosts to come back from the brink in a quickie of a series. Attack without being scared of going 0-2 down is the key. Ravi Shastri comments.

For a change, one would hate to be in Mahendra Singh Dhoni's shoes. The all-conquering cricketer is in an unenviable position. India's perch at the top is skating on thin ice.

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In order to win you need to score runs in heaps and take wickets in a clutch. Both are tall tasks for a side laid low by injuries and indifferent form. It doesn't stop with fitness and fate alone. A spoke in the wheel in selection is another issue doing rounds.

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Still, Dhoni and his men have to start from somewhere and a few thoughts can lift them. For one, there were still a couple of hundreds to salvage from the debris of Nagpur.

Two, India's ace spinner Harbahjan Singh is in his lair in Eden Gardens. The battling Sikh is never more dangerous than when pushed in a corner. But having said that he has to have the self belief that has made him what he is. And that's being an attacking off spinner. To hell with the Doosra.

Three, VVS Laxman returns to his garden of heaven. Four, Sreesanth, on his day can surprise the best and better sense might prevail in favour of Pragyan Ojha. Ojha in Nagpur would have allowed Dhoni to control the game.

If only Dhoni can win the toss. For all this to happen, Indians would still need a pitch to their liking. A rank turner, even when its' spinners are struggling, would be their wish.

It's unlikely it would be so though. Indeed, they ought to be thankful if it is not a greentop.

My gut feeling is that Eden Gardens will favour neither spin nor pace and it will take mighty resolve from the hosts to come back from the brink in a quickie of a series. Attack without being scared of going 0-2 down is the key.

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