Not related to the point I made.
Regardless of how flat a pitch might look, you don't know it's flat until you've played on it. Given that, India's decision to open with Karthik made perfect sense (at least more than opening with Sehwag again). Sehwag is low on confidence right now, so chances are he may have thrown it away early on even on a flat track. Now he has a platform to launch from and a better chance to strike form. As for Karthik, he is a long-term option for India. He's a better test prospect than Dhoni tbh - the only reason Dhoni is still there is because he exploded on the one-day scene and he hasn't exactly failed in test cricket yet. I'm not saying Karthik has secured the test keeper's role already, but he's certainly in the long-term plans.
Lol, I realise I'm getting a reputation of the betting guy
True but the Indians knew the wicket was flat yesterday hence the reason why Sehwag was kept in the side. He was a goner until their saw the wicket, if it had any sort of grass than Karthik would have not opened and if South Africa would have batted first then Karthik still would have not opened regardless of the state of wicket. As I said his a short term fix, doubtlessly this innings might change that opinion but like Jaffer's double ton against the West Indies a few low score failures on competitive wickets and the knifes will be out and Gautam Gambhir suddenly becomes the best thing since sliced bread.
No idea.
Sachin failing on this track doesn`t seem likely, unless Ntini or Steyn bowl him a decent one. Sehwag will probably fail.
IMO, and this is only the way I'm looking at it, this test has no influence on the team composition of the Indian test team in the future, well at least from the batting POV.
Spot on. All that matters is that we pull off a historic series win in South Africa.
Sehwag opening on this wicket and scoring a ton or a double ton would be the ideal case and lot more positive and confident move. But since the kind of form sehwag was the team was just not confident enough to let sehwag open. It might look to be a bit defensive approach but the confidence level in the opening pair was just too low. Even sehwag must be cursing himself by now if only he had scored even one 70 or 80 in his previous 4 innings he would have surely opened. I hope sehwag learns something from this mistake of his and is a bit cautious whenever he opens whether its flat or not.
I cannot believe I am saying this. First off, I despise Dhoni with every fiber of my being. I will never forget Mumbai 2006.
You'd have a piece on India at those odds. They're in a very good state with Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly to come.