The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| India expects great things from Sehwag’s return Posted: 05 Aug 2011 06:33 AM PDT MUMBAI, Aug 5 — Former India players are united in their belief that Virender Sehwag's return from injury will stabilise the team's fragile batting order and lift morale in the remaining two tests against a dominant England. The dashing opener has been sidelined since undergoing shoulder surgery in May, keeping the 32-year-old out of the tour of the West Indies and India's first two tests against England.
"It is almost going to be like a new series. To have Sehwag (picture) and (Gautam) Gambhir back... It will give a lot of confidence to the team," the former India international and coach told Reuters. Sehwag's opening partner Gambhir injured his elbow while fielding at Lord's and missed the 319-run defeat at Trent Bridge but is likely to return to the starting lineup for the third test beginning on August 10 at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The injuries to the top order forced India to tinker with the batting lineup, placing Rahul Dravid in a makeshift opener's role and Vangipurappu Laxman up the order at number three. "In a test match, it is of utmost necessity to have a good start. Their return will be a big relief for the captain and the team," emphasised the former India opener, who played 40 test matches from 1975-85. Sehwag has 22 hundreds in 87 test appearances but it his strike rate of almost 82 runs per 100 deliveries that make him one of the most intimidating batsmen in cricket. Former captain Ajit Wadekar said Sehwag's return would ease the pressure on India's "Big Three" — Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Laxman. "Sehwag coming back itself is enough to boost the morale of the team. We never had a solid opening partnership in the series," Wadekar, the former chief of national selectors, said by phone. "If our openers do their bit, batsmen down the order will start gaining in confidence." Sehwag's audacious strokeplay might be the ideal counter-attacking ploy the team needed to recover from the heavy defeats and avoid a two-clear test series defeat that would enable England to leapfrog India at the top of the rankings. "The opposition bowlers also get disheartened by Sehwag's presence," the 70-year-old Wadekar said. India will play a two-day tour game against Northamptonshire starting today and it will be Sehwag's only chance to acclimatise himself to the conditions before the third test starts on August 10. "I don't know how much practise he will get. He has been out for so long after the injury. Hope he acclimatises quickly with the conditions there," Wadekar, who led India to series victories in West Indies and England in 1971, said. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly also doubted whether Sehwag had enough time to get match fit. "It has to be seen whether the dynamic opener has had enough cricket or whether the Northants game is enough to get him ready for Birmingham," Ganguly wrote in a column which was published in the Hindustan Times yesterday. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Arsenal face Udinese in Champions League qualifiers Posted: 05 Aug 2011 03:43 AM PDT
Arsenal will face Serie A outfit Udinese, a draw which looks tough on paper but may not be so tricky in reality against a club who have sold their two most important players and will not have played a competitive match beforehand. Four-times European champions Bayern and Arsenal were spared the long trip to Russia to face Rubin Kazan, a task which fell to France's Olympique Lyon. Former European champions Benfica must play Twente Enschede and Spain's Villarreal were pitted against Odense of Denmark in the so-called "league" side of the draw, featuring non-champions from Europe's strongest domestic championships. "That is an achievable and interesting task," Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes told the Bavarian club's website (http://www.fcbayern.t-home.de). We have an excellent chance to qualify for the group stage. Avoiding Rubin meant we will not have any complicated travelling to do." Bayern were plunged into the qualifying stage when they could finish only third in the Bundesliga last season, a performance which cost Louis van Gaal his job as coach. Failing to qualify for the group stage would be unthinkable for Germany's biggest club, especially in a year when they are hosting the final. FC Zurich, who beat AC Milan 1-0 away in a group stage match two years ago, beat Standard Liege in the third qualifying round but have made a terrible start to the Swiss League, losing all three games so far. Udinese general manager Franco Collavini did not appear to hold much hope of preventing Arsenal reaching the group stage for the 15th consecutive season and said his team were concentrating on their Serie A debut on August 28. "It's a very difficult match against one of the most important clubs in Europe," said Collavini, whose club have sold winger Alexis Sanchez to Barcelona and midfielder Gokhan Inler to Napoli. "We are working to complete our squad for the end of August. It's important to have the opportunity to play a club like Arsenal." Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will not be in the dugout for the first leg after his outburst in their last-16 defeat by Barcelona last season resulted in a one-match ban. The first legs will be played on August 16/17 with the returns one week later. Of the sides to won their domestic championships FC Copenhagen, who last year reached the last 16, were drawn against Viktoria Plzen from the Czech Republic while former European Cup runners-up Malmo will play Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb, who last qualified in 1999/00. Five places are reserved for the champions from lower-ranked nations in the group stage. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
India, 2-0 down in the four-match series, had looked nothing like the world's number one-ranked team in the Lord's and Trent Bridge tests but that could change with the return of the explosive right-hander, according to Anshuman Gaekwad.
NYON (Switzerland), Aug 5 — Bayern Munich, whose Allianz arena will stage this year's Champions League final, breathed a sigh of relief when they were drawn against modest FC Zurich in the final qualifying round today.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Sports To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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