Credit where it's due please. Dravid took the catch where others may have dropped it, and there's always a certain amount of luck involved with caught-behinds off spinners. It's helped a great deal by general anticipation skills and decent-ish technique, and even in that respect I trust Dravid more than Patel.
Nehra's injury is really quite sad. I suppose One thing to be thankful for is that these are ODI's and not Tests. I hope they rest him for a few more matches and see if he's really match fit again. Something really should be done about the fitness threshold that the BCCI employs. Fitness certificates aren't enough, and somehow it seems that the pressure to get key players into key games overrides their performances in the nets, or in fitness testing. How often do we see an injured player fast-tracked into a side only to be injured again? And most often, the player in question is never convinced of his fitness and doesn't put all he has into the game. It would be unfair to say that this happens only with the BCCI(although it's happened with Zaheer, Harbhajan, Kumble, Nehra), and while I'm aware of the difficulty in judging a player's "match fitness" (especially with bowlers), this really should be taken up at the ICC level -- to protect players' careers if nothing else.
I hope I'm not making portentious statements about Nehra's career. I was really impressed with how he raised his game for the first match, both with his bowling and his fielding. It would be quite sad if this injury is serious. He really does need to implement Bruce Reid's recommendations about his back foot in the delivery stride (Can someone find that interview with Reid?)
As for the second match, Ganguly seems to be suffering from a fever, so it may be that VVS comes in for Ganguly, Powar for Badani, and Pathan for Nehra. If not, then I suppose either Pathan or Powar will miss out. I think Pathan should be left out simply because he's too young and too raw. However, as Gilchrist and Hayden have found out, he does possess the "magic ball factor". Also, reports say that the pitch is on the slower side, so Powar's spin wouldn't be a bad bet.
Arjun, you made a fair point about Ganguly being unable to handle Kartik. But I think he's getting better with him; consider the fact that he reintroduced Kartik into the attack(albeit under serious duress, since everyone else was being hammered) after he was creamed and Murali obliged by taking two wickets and winning the match for him. I don't think Kartik should, or can, be dropped to make way for anyone. The Indian captain needs to learn how to marshall a good spinner. Kumble doesn't count because his bowling can carry itself, with or without an obliging captain.
