Sport

Cloud of doubt over India-Scotland ODI

Glasgow: After the dream Test series victory against Michael Vaughan’s England, a buoyant Team India would like to utilise its maiden one-dayer against Scotland on Thursday to get into the ODI mode before the seven-match ODI series against England starting next week.

In contrast, Scotland will look forward to the game as a good learning curve as it tests itself against a fancied opponent in India.

However, the one-off tie would be at the mercy of the rain gods with the weathermen predicting rain.

Just before the series against England, India redeemed itself in the shorter version of the game after the horrors of the World Cup when it defeated South Africa to win the trophy in Ireland.

On its part, Scotland is definitely short of both class and experience at this level. In the seven ODIs it has played against fancied teams like Australia (2), Pakistan (2), West Indies (2) and South Africa (1), it is yet to record a victory.

On a more positive note, however, it has beaten Ireland — which did remarkably well in the World Cup — this season to win its first-ever match against its traditional rivals in four attempts.

For India, it will be interesting to see how good, and fit, Munaf Patel looks after being overlooked for the Test series against England. Also looking to prove a point will be young guns Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla and Gautam Gambhir.

Scotland has summoned all their top players who were busy doing duty in the English county.

The teams (from): India: Rahul Dravid (Capt.), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, R udra Pratap Singh and Munaf Patel.