I found some time to quickly preview the match, so , here goes.

Two pitches have been prepared for the Mohali test. One is lush green and the other is dry and full of cracks already. The first is only meant to make the English bowlers salivate to dehydration and the match will be played on the second. Our seam bowling is improving but is no match for the English attack.

Like a lot of you I have been pondering our bowling attack. I firmly believe that we should play 5 bowlers. It is baffling that the team has been so timid. I would play - Irfan , Munaf, Kumble and Chawla as my first four. Sreesanth is recovering from viral fever. If the team plays 5 , then Bhajji gets in. I know that it would mean two leg spinners but it is difficult to consider Anil  a traditional leg spinner. The English have not played Chawla before and I know he will do well if selected. Ideally you play an offspinner and a legspinner, but Bhajji has been very disappointing.

Here's my team , assuming the grassless pitch is chosen:

Sehwag, Jaffer, Dravid, Sachin, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Irfan, Chawla, Kumble, Munaf, Harbhajan.

I am afraid, VVS has to make way for Yuvraj so that we can field 5 bowlers. He has had his chances and nobody should have any complaints about that.

I generally avoid commenting on non cricketing issues, but some things are more important than cricket. I grieve with the people of Varanasi and am very disturbed by the bomb blasts yesterday. This is aimed at fomenting communal strife. The aim of the terrorists is to communalise the populace even further by inciting widespread rioting. It is only the evil that thrive in this situation. 

I have many happy memories of spending my summer vacations in Varanasi. The Sankat Mochan temple complex always made me feel relaxed and peaceful even when bustling with people and monkeys. Such an atrocity, by definition, cannot be committed by a human hand. Hence, the perpetrators should not expect humane treatment.

Here is what I would like to see : People of all faiths come out together, show their unity and protest the attack. Peace must be maintained at all costs. Second, I want the government of Manmohan Singh to publicly state that they will make every effort, fair or foul, use all means, covert and overt, to punish the forces responsible for the attack. In brief, the government should do a 'Munich' in punishing the perpetrators. Alas, the record of successive Indian governments in this regard is woeful, to say the least.