I might even take the dark days of the nineties when we had a middling team held together by the genius of Sachin and Kumble. Instead of tonking six sizes like Yuvaraj, this team would probably knock down the last two balls having met their mini target from the first four balls. “I miss the magic and despair of the days when Sehwag walked out and did whatever he felt like with a big goofy grin on his face regardless of what the coach and captain begged him to do in the dressing room five minutes prior. “Am I the only Indian fan here feeling a lack of emotion for this efficient Indian team winning games by ruthlessly executing a game plan?” asks Fahd Mashood. It’s unclear when the cut off time is, but we must be pretty close. We have Shami ready and raring to go so we’re not too worried ahout where it stands. Bhuvi has a slight niggle from slipping on the footmarks, hopefully he’ll be ready in a couple of games or maximum three games from now. We never approach these games from the fan point of view, as cricketers we need to know what to do and be professional about.

I think they outplayed us in the Champions Trophy final but apart from that we’ve played some really good cricket against Pakistan. It’s the best he bowled since coming to England. It was a very important moment in the game. They were trying to play him off and thinking he would go out of the attack but a longer spell helped and he was getting more rhythm with every other and the ball to get Babar was outstanding with drift and turn. KL laid a good founation with Rohit who showed why he is such a good player, which allowed me to play a certain role and for Hardik to explode. The template has been really good so far, a team batting effort with Rohit’s outstanding knock. There was enough there if you bowled in the right areas. To be honest, the pitch didn’t make a lot of difference but the ball started turning in the second half of our batting innings.

Cricket 2019 live