Will history repeat?

When Steve Bucknor surprisingly (or shockingly, as some would say) turned down Monty Panesar's appeal against last man Sreesanth, all his past indiscretions against Indian team and its players were forgotten. For, that was as plum as a rather large plum from a big plum tree in Plumshire! To me, it was also the most definitive moment of the final day of the intensely fought first test at Lords. Simply because without it, everything including Karthik's gritty 60, MS Dhoni's gallant 76 n.o, his stand with VVS Laxman or even the heavenly intervention would have been rendered ineffective.

Much as I would have preferred to see the first test end in an unambiguous manner rather than a rain forced draw, I was also relieved that India luckily wriggled out of what potentially could have been a series costing loss. In recent past Indian team has found itself agonisingly close to victory, most notably during the test series in Caribbean last year, when they failed to dismiss the WI tail enders both at Antigua and St Lucia. May be India deserved the rub of green too!

Indians may have escaped defeat, but make no mistake, their batsmen are scarred. If a young and second string English attack can so rattle the 'famed' Indian line up, I don't want to imagine what a full fledged seam attack of Flintoff, Hoggard and Harmison was capable of. And we aren't even talking of Simon Jones. There are questions asked of the Indian middle order, and rightly so.

Sachin Tendulkar finds himself in the spotlight and as often was the case for last couple of years, all for wrong reasons. Along with Rahul Dravid he is still the 'untouchable' as far as selectors are concerned. But it may not be for long. This series could well answer the questions that his critics have raised on his reliability as a frontline batsmen. Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman seem to play to survive the next test. Atleast it appears so. If Sachin still has couple of tests to prove a point or two to his critics, Ganguly and VVS won't be so fortunate. One of them will have to make way for Yuvraj, who is too good a player to be sitting on the bench when others on the field are either failing or are only moderately successful.

The bowlers meanwhile have come out of the Lords test with their reputation enhanced. If not for their efforts, India would not have possibly taken this game into the fifth day. I believe they have a more prominent role to play in the remaining tests, for, Trent Bridge and Kennington Oval will offer more help to bowlers than Lords.

India has a 100% record of winning the series when they have forced a draw in the first test in England. The 1971 series was won without 'meaningful' contribution from batsmen. 1986 was more of a all round effort, with almost equal contributions from both bowlers and batsmen. If India are to maintain that record, they will need batsmen to set aside their 'tentativitis' while facing the swinging ball and bowlers to continue their good work.

Will the real Chandra, Vengsarkar and Chetan Sharma from current squad stand up please?