The one mistake any Indian cricket fan can make at the moment is get carried away by the performance of players in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), and find fault in the national squad that was announced on Wednesday for the Test series in England.
Obviously, the two formats of the game are chalk and cheese.
It requires a completely different skill set to excel in the shortest format, compared to Test matches.
And the playing conditions in the subcontinent and England couldn't be more different.
However, there have been a few players who have caught the eye during the IPL and certainly deserved a closer look, simply for getting the basics right – something that's an asset in any format, in any conditions.
Two players who could have been extremely useful are Robin Uthappa and Sandeep Sharma.
Uthappa is the leading run-scorer in the IPL this season and his 655 runs have rargely been accumulated with the straightest of bats.
Unlike the mayhem unleashed by the likes of Dwayne Smith and Glenn Maxwell, there is more method than madness when Uthappa is at the crease.
As for Sandeep Sharma, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma, he has been outstanding.
While Mohit depends a lot on variation of pace, Sandeep has picked up most of his wickets through genuine seam and swing movement.
That ability would have been worth its weight in gold in English conditions.
Apart from these two missing out, the talking points of the 15-man squad were the inclusion of Gautam Gambhir and seamer Pankaj Singh, as well as the exclusion of Zaheer Khan.
The wily Khan would have been an asset despite his age, if he had been fit, but the body is just not willing in his case.
After making yet another comeback against New Zealand earlier this year, the 35-year-old is once again absent due to a back injury.
Both Gambhir and Pankaj have staked their claims following some brilliant domestic performances.
Gambhir is a known entity in international cricket, but the tall, strapping Singh will be the one to watch.
For the last few seasons, he has been one of the main reasons why the unheralded Rajasthan have done so well in domestic leagues.
In the 2013-14 Ranji Trophy season, he took 39 wickets at an average of 22.46 on mostly dead wickets.
India’s squad of 18 players for what is their first-ever five-Test series in more than a decade includes a strong attack of six pace bowlers, and only two spinners.
The batting remains more or less the same, with Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli expected to do much of the run making.
There is no doubt India are hurting from the 4-0 whitewash in 2011, but also the 2-1 loss at home to England last year.
In 2011, India had both Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in the team, and yet the batting was as much a failure as the inept bowling, which saw England’s batsmen make in excess of 470 runs in each of the four Tests.
What captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the selectors have done this time is pay more attention to the bowling unit.
Only time will tell if the focus on their bowling department will prove to be a good move for India or not.
