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Rajkot: In a clash of free spirited captains. England's Kevin Pietersen will take on MS Dhoni's India in the first of seven One-day International in Rajkot on Friday. Though both skippers played down the Dhoni-versus-Pietersen angle and stressed that it is a team game, all eyes will be on their respective styles of captaincy.
Both Dhoni and Pietersen exude flamboyance and strength of characters. They are both shrewd and unorthodox in their style of operation. As MS showed in the recently-concluded Test series against World Champions Australia, he is thinking cricketer and very good at playing the psychological game to outwit his opponents.
Even KP did the same against South Africa when he took over the captaincy from Michael Vaughan last summer. After taking over the captaincy, Kevin has led England to five successive victories, in a Test and four one-dayers, all against South Africa.
Records waited in Rajkot
Two dismissals needed by MS Dhoni (31 ct + 17 st in 47 ODIs) to become the 2nd keeper to complete 50 dismissals in India. Nayan Mongia (60 in 47 ODIs) is the only one to effect 50 dismissals or more in India.
Three wickets needed by Andrew Flintoff (33 in 25 ODIs) to overtake Javagal Srinath's tally of 35 in 21 games and to become the leading wicket-taker in India-England ODIs.
Five wickets required by Bhajji to become the sixth Indian to complete 200 or more wickets in One-dayers. Anil Kumble (237), Javagal Srinath (315), Ajit Agarkar (288), Kapil Dev (253) and Zaheer Khan (210) have achieved this distinction.
| India | England | |
| Coach | Gary Kirstan | peter Moores |
| ICC Ranking | 5 | 3 |
| Key Players | Sehwag, Dhoni, Zaheer, Yuvraj | Flintoff, Pietersen, Collingwood, Anderson |
| Drawing Broad | Dhoni & Co. may find it difficult to make the transition from Tests to ODIs in just three days. To key, however, will be to rely o the once who featured in the Challenger Series. | KP will rely on his quick to do the unthinkable on flat Indian tracks. He will expect the seniors like Flintoff and Collingwood to deliver as quite a few in the side are on their 1st tour to India. |
| Weather | It's going to be a hot day with the mercury expected to read 330C. Not much of sweating tough as the humidity will be about 53%. The occasional breeze will southe things for the players. | |
| Pitch | The Madhav Rao Sciendia Ground in Rajkot had always presented typical batting beauties. | |
| ODDS | 4/7 | 5/4 |
