a man to man comparison (doesn't say too much but fun and somewhat englightening, nonetheless).
openers:
strauss and cook vs. sehwag and gambhir
very difficult to call. cook has been in excellent form recently but, then, so has gambhir, even in 'away' conditions, allegedly the average indian batsman's bete noire. sehwag has a mediocre record in england, and indeed in places where there is lateral movement - nz and sith effrica), but he is quite unique, perhaps even a genius, and counting him out is foolhardy. even stevens with home conditions negating any advantage that the fear of a potential sehwag special might give.
middleorder:
trott, pietersen, bell, morgan vs. dravid, tendulkar, laxman, raina/pujara
on paper, the indians have it by a country mile. any team with tendulkar and dravid and all that. however, dravid hasn't been anywhere near his best recently and trott is a dravid in the making. tendulkar is having an extended indian summer in the autumn/winter of his career and can be expected to make some big runs. pietersen hasn't been close to the kp of 07 vintage, when he was a dominating batsman, the 200 at adelaide notwithstanding. laxman, too, has been playing quite superbly of late, but while it is anathema to compare bell to laxman, i would dare to at present given that bell has also been batting like a dream and seems to have finally discovered how to make the most of his considerable potential. the pujaras vs the morgans would cancel each other out. the indians have it by a slight bit.
keepers:
prior and dhoni -- much of a muchness
seam bowling:
anderson, broad, tremlett, bresnan/finn vs. khan, sreesanth, patel, sharma/another.
while anderson and khan cancel each other out, the depth of the english lineup (and the bench which also has shezad and others) would be ahead of their indian counterparts, though it needs be said that even inexperienced indian seamers often do well when conditions suit and so it might be unwise to count them out completely.
spin:
swann vs. singh
swann, for my money, is a slightly better bowler at present even though singh didn't bowl too badly in the tests in south africa. however, he will be bowling at the indian batsmen, who are undoubtedly the best players in the world, bar none.
even stevens.
captaincy:
strauss vs. dhoni
again even stevens
fielding:
england takes this though the indians, for all their lack of mobility on the ground (let's face it, some of them look like constipated camels galumphing along after the mirage that is the ball), are safe, even if not exactly brilliant, catchers.
difficult to call but i would back the staggering indian batting to bail them out of some parlous situations and help them sneak the series 2 - 1.
