India spin a win in Kanpur, clear Test before IPL carnival

Like a commuter on a rush hour Virar Fast, Virender Sehwag is hanging on to the SUV as Team India gets ready to start yet another victory lap. Coach Gary Kirsten smiles as he watches his team test the capacity of the vehicle, the prize for the man of the series, that has the stand-in skipper and the unofficial team driver for all such occasions at the wheel.

Sehwag shouts in an exaggerated accent, "Gary, come along." The coach doesn't oblige as he has a television interview to give. But watching the new coach in a sea of happy faces around him, it was clear that the Kanpur trip has helped the coach hop onto Indian cricket's bandwagon that has been on a roll for some time now. Dhoni spoke about Kirsten's rapport with the team. "Of course, it is too early, but I think he is hitting the right areas," he says.

It isn't just the coach who's hitting the right areas, but the entire team did that here after being totally off-target during the three-day loss at Motera. They travelled to Kanpur with a lot on their minds. Sunil Gavaskar had spoken about IPL distractions during the Test series and asked Kirsten to crack the whip. Injury had hit the bowling department hard. There was a question mark over Ishant Sharma, who was retuming after an injury.

Intrigue was speculated as shorter-version skipper Dhoni replaced injured Test captain Anil Kumble. The moming that had started with television visuals showing Kumble leaving the team hotel with interpretations of a senior-junior divide in team ended with a number of happy family frames around.

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