1. Sehwag being called mediocre - We saw him getting a test fifer not long ago, and while he's not the best finger-spinner going around, he is certainly good to bowl 10 overs in an ODI, and certainly better than what I saw of Yusuf Pathan. You said Rajkot was a small ground. Precisely why he was hit for s many runs, many of them cleared the boundary by miles, but some of them by just, and would have been catches in any other big ground.
Sehwag has a bowling average over 40 and doesn't last more than three overs. That's reason enough not to use him at all, especially when he needs to concentrate on his batting. Yusuf is still new and will need a little while to settle, and he's one of the better OD spinners among the batsmen- he's good enough to play as a limited-overs spinner, given what other teams have. Sehwag doesn't need to be subject to this, when he's a batting mainstay. He doesn't cut it as a regular bowler, and he's better off concentrating on his batting, and leave the bowling to someone fresher, lower in rank and less experienced.
2. A reason for Dhoni not resorting to his main bowlers was that the ball had become rough and the seam bowlers could not find the same movement as before. Secondly, the pitch was slowing up and the ball was also getting rough, and that stage, especially when the lower order English batsmen (purely by batting position, not by calibre), were hitting out, and giving some pace on it would have played into their hands. Obviously they are much better at hitting out off pacers than spinners.
When your pacers have five wickets between them and your spinners are Harbhajan and Sehwag, you have to think about that as well. There's also that aspect of reverse swing, which could have been used. They are your frontline bowlers, and they have a clue of how to get a batsman out rather than these part-timers who have no clue of what to do.
3. While Zaheer did his share of stuff, I think he was letoff by an English top-order (again purely by batting position). They gave him too much respect, and completely looked happy with defending him or nudging him to fine leg and take a single. Noone dared to take out the faster bowlers, and I suspect had they, his figures would have surely looked worse. Munaf did a better job with line and length. Also Zaheer's scalp of Flintoff was a farce, as the ball pitched miles outside leg stump.
He's bowled tight, and taking three top order wickets isn't a joke, umpiring errors notwithstanding. Moreover, with a massive total of 387 behind them, this was a good time for him to ease himself in.
4. This could have been a batsmans paradise, however certainly not a 350+ wicket. And Yuvraj deserves every praise he gets due to hanging in there despite his back problem and then later cutting loose, and never letting the innings lose the momentum that the openers gave them. He might have mistimed some shots, but the others were pure delight and so crushing to the bowlers' egos. And also remember he didn't play the bowler, rather the ball, and showed that when Fred Flintoff came in for his final spell, and was carted for 34 runs in 2 overs as compared to 30odd he gave in 8 overs previous to it.
Agree with this, but this is the same Yuvraj who couldn't score against anyone, pace or spin, even in ODIs. Rajkot is a far cry from a top international venue, and we'd prefer to see this in grounds of a more acceptable size and stature.
5. Pathan badly used by Dhoni? I disagree. Pathan was promoted ahead of Dhoni in the batting order which in itself is a huge encouragement, for it showed the faith of the captain in him, though he failed miserably. And in his first over he was carted for a six and gave 10 runs, but still was given another chance, which also failed. Pathan was introduced ahead of Bhajji also, which again shows the confidence in him. And despite the battering he got in early, he was again brought in at the end, when he got a wicket purely due to umpiring error.
While I do appreciate the idea of promoting Yusuf, he would have been more useful (this is a team idea rather than helping Yusuf) at seven with few overs left. Even then, he came with the team scoring rapidly and had to keep the momentum going, but somehow didn't connect. We've seen him bat for India A and he's done very well there, and there's no reason to brand him a miserable failure after one innings and drop him- look at how many chances Yuvraj, Sharma, Sehwag and Raina have had. He was brought on to bowl when a partnership was on and Pietersen got stuck into him, and at a time when he could settle and play himself in, Sehwag got a free ride and bowled nine dreadful overs- and it took two Bopara sixes to get Yusuf back. We've seen Yusuf's other captains use him well as a bowler, but Dhoni treats him as someone less than Sehwag.
6. One last point. Regarding RP Singh's bowling. He looked absolutely out of place in the Indian side there today. Completely lacking match practise, struggled to get his rhythm, line and length. Was carted. And was even worse in the field, where he misfielded atleast two boundaries. Guilty to a large extent of letting England get to a 200+ score.
I wonder what's wrong. Make no mistake, with a Test series coming up, both he and Munaf will have to play all seven matches, so they need to fix it, and fast.