Having led India to three World Cup victories against Pakistan, former captain Mohammad Azharuddin feels the defending champions face no serious threat from their arch-rivals in the much-hyped encounter between the two sides in the cricket World Cup.
Out-of-favour India openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir found some form going their way as Delhi got the better of Himachal Pradesh by six wickets in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 match for North Zone in Mohali on Tuesday. Sehwag smashed 42 off 32 balls, while the left-handed captain Gambhir scored a 40-ball 41, helping Delhi complete the chase of 134 with 10 deliveries to spare at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium.
'The way they are playing, the bowlers we have, this is the best team in the world and I see them winning the World Test Championship.'
Young opener Matt Renshaw (60) and experienced Shaun Marsh (66) battled hard against the Indian spinners and their fighting half-centuries consolidated Australia's position in the match but Virat Kohli's captaincy left a lot to be desired.
Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman pointed out that Ishant's no-ball problem is one of the reasons for his exclusion from the side.
A B de Villiers produced one of the most devastating Twenty20 innings as he smashed an unbeaten 89 from just 42 balls as Royal Challengers Bangalore pulled off a sensational four-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a dramatic IPL match in Bangalore on Sunday.
From Rohit Sharma's record breaking double century in One-Day Internationals, the team's never-ending woes in overseas Tests, to the controversy surrounding Board of Control for Cricket in India's president-in-exile Narayanswami Srinivasan over the Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal, Indian cricket had the good, bad and ugly in equal measure in 2014.
New Zealand's pace attack ripped through India's top order to reduce the tourists to 45 for three at tea on the second day of the first Test at Eden Park in Auckland, on Friday after Brendon McCullum's 224 propelled them to an impressive first innings total of 503.
The third and final cricket One Day International between India and South Africa was abandoned after rains intervened at the innings break to leave the home side with a 2-0 series win in Centurion.
A round-up of Ranji matches played across India on Thursday.
'With India's bowling so poor, there will be extra pressure on the batsmen to score more runs. The Indian team, which nonchalantly scores 300/350 runs in ODIs at home, has had problems making even 200/250 runs in Australia.'
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