India's ODI slump, and Lord's lows

For the second time in two seasons, India will kick off their international season with a one-day series in Sri Lanka. Last year, there was much to look forward to as India embarked on the journey to Colombo for the Asia Cup - they had held Australia and beaten Pakistan overseas, they had a strong captain, a bunch of talented youngsters to go with the experienced heads, and it seemed, finally, that this team might world-beaters on a consistent basis.

Then, it all went horribly wrong - a weak performance in the Asia Cup was followed by more dismal results, and a season of hope soon turned into a season of horror, as India went on to lose 13 out of 23 matches, with five of the nine wins coming against Bangladesh, Kenya and UAE. (Click here for India's overall summary last season, and here for the corresponding results in the previous 16 months.)

The batting copped most of the flak, and much of it was justified - Virender Sehwag was terribly out of form, and that denied India the ideal launching pad - but the bowlers got away relatively lightly, and were quite lucky to do so.

Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar have all been around for long enough to qualify them as experienced one-day bowlers, while Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji were outstanding in their first season, but they've all shown a baffling lack of consistency. In 23 matches last season, India conceded more than 280 on eight occasions, and not all of them on shirtfronts. (Click here for an innings-by-innings list of India's ODIs last season.)

The table below compares the Indian bowlers' performances over the last two seasons - the glaring aspect over that entire period is that all of India's seamers went at nearly or more than five an over. And, quite strangely, the bowler who has averaged less than 27 in both those years and gone at only fractionally over five an over - a better effort than most of his colleagues - finds himself discarded this season. Ajit Agarkar's 40 wickets in his last 25 games has cost him 23.53 per wicket, yet he has been upstaged by the rest of the cast.

It's also interesting to see how the leading bowlers from the rest of the teams have done since the 2003 World Cup. Most of the teams have at least one bowler with an average in the 20s and an excellent economy rate as well. It shows what India have been lacking, and what Greg Chappell needs to work on, on the way to building a formidable team for the 2007 World Cup.

Lord's lows
Seventeen wickets for 282 runs meant that the first day of the Lord's Test was far more action-packed than anyone would have imagined. It also meant that, for the first time since 1968, no Australian batsman got to a half-century in the first innings of a Test at this venue. (Justin Langer's 40 was the highest score.) On that occasion, England thoroughly dominated the rain-interrupted drawn match, declaring at 351 for 7 in their first, then bundling the Australians out for 78. Thanks to Glenn McGrath's amazing spell on the first day, Australia ensured that they hit back with venom after a disappointing batting display. The table below lists the lowest top scores for Australia in the first innings at Lord's.