India should build on the plus points

By John Cheeran
Sanjay Manjrekar had observed that the pitches prepared for the Champions Trophy are unlikely to be full of runs. He had his reason.
Monsoon is just over and curators have not got much time to tend the pitch the way they want and that means in the beginning of the season, pitches may not hold good for a batting feast.
The way West Indies crumbled in Mumbai against Sri Lanka and England's below par performance in Jaipur against India give credence to Manjrekar's argument.
Champions Trophy is in for some tantalising battles during the coming weeks.
Having said that India and Rahul Dravid can take comfort from the four-wicket win in their first match.
Yes, India too struggled to hit off 126 runs losing their top order in the process. In the glow of victory, it would be worthwhile to remember that not much has changed from what has happened in the recent times.
Sachin Tendulkar is in great touch and it was his superior approach to the task at hand that helped India to overhaul Andrew Flintoff's challenge. Tendulkar was not in a hurry after Virender Sehwag went early.
Tendulkar even let Irfan Pathan have majority of the strike when these two were at the crease. The biggest plus point from Jaipur is that the bowler-friendly track with uneven bounce helped Pathan to regain his confidence as a bowler.
To Pathan's credit, he did not fritter away an opportunity such as this and put the ball on the rigth spot grabbing England skipper Flintoff's prize wicket.
At another level, team management remains unruffled by the criticism. Chappell and Dravid picked five bowlers -- Pathan, Munaf Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Pawar showing their resolve to break the tradition of packing the side with batsmen.
Sehwag was given back his opener's slot but that in itself is not a signal that guys are far away from the winds of change.
Pathan walking in as the No.3,virtually doing an opener's role if you consider Sehwag's hasty retreat, signals experiments with batting orders are very much boiling inside the dressing room.
Losing six wickets while chasing 126 should make Indian camp pay enough attention to their struggling batsmen. Tide should turn in favour of them but the wait cannot go on for ever. I hope Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoniwake up soon.
After crossing the first hurdle, Dravid's worry must be to maintain the winning momentum since India go to battle now only after 10 days.
He would do well to regain his batting touch in the meanwhile so that India does not suffer a West Indies in the remaining matches.