Gambhir's series was illustrative of his career - confidence at Nagpur, misjudgement, maybe even misfortune, at Cuttack, and sloppiness at Chennai. He could have eyed the reserve-opener slot for the World Cup but Sehwag's imminent return makes it an extremely long shot because Uthappa might just have upstaged him for that berth. His 41-ball 70 will be hard to match for its sheer impact, with crisply struck swats clattering into the boundary hoardings. The jury is still out on his technique -sophisticated slogger or adept thumper? - but this isn't the time for such philosophical questions.

Uthappa has amassed 854 runs in seven games in a bowler-dominated Ranji Trophy - significantly, three of his hundreds were on the first morning of games - and done enough, one might say, in the ODIs to deserve a spot. He needs to cash in on the starts he's got - in Chennai he gave it away when in the zone, in Vadodara he tried a cute glide to one that lifted from a good length - but he's an explosive talent and must be persisted with.

The middle order: India still don't know how well equipped they are in run-chases. Brian Lara chose to field on three occasions and Dravid decided to bat at Cuttack, the only venue where he won the toss. But Tendulkar shepherding in the middle order provides an element of calm. His hundred at Vadodara was a fine mix of strike-rotation and acceleration, giving India exactly what they missed over the last few months - consolidation followed by the final kick.

Word is that Virender Sehwag, likely to return for the Sri Lanka series, will bat in the middle order and, along with the impressive Dinesh Karthik and destructive Mahendra Singh Dhoni, provide the much-needed firepower at the death.

If Sehwag is indeed tried out in the middle order then he may have to compete with Dinesh Karthik for a place. Sehwag provides the offspin option but Karthik's agility, in a side that's loaded with weak fielders, will be impossible to ignore. And where does this leave Suresh Raina, who squandered his only chance at Chennai? India's ideal 12th man but whether fielding alone is enough for a spot remains to be seen.

The allrounder: This is one slot that doesn't seem to have any takers - Joginder Sharma muffed his chance at Cuttack, reckless with the bat and listless with the ball. Ramesh Powar, till recently a handy domestic allrounder, seized his chance with the ball, in his only opportunity at Cuttack, but his batting seems to have fallen away (and he doesn't have fielding to fall back on). He would anyway struggle to make the World Cup squad, with India almost set on picking two specialist spinners and the part-timers being slow bowlers as well. Irfan Pathan, lackluster in his only appearance at Vadodara, looks the ideal one to step into the No.7 void, provided he regains some sort of bowling rhythm.

Unanswered questions: What does one expect against Sri Lanka? The main question over the bowling is the choice between the erratic Sreesanth and the fragile Munaf Patel, with only one of them likely to be picked for the West Indies, and there's still a doubt over Pathan's rhythm. Yuvraj Singh hasn't done much with the bat since his return from injury and India will hope that the few remaining wrinkles are ironed over during the last lap of their World Cup preparations.

why is it that Dinesh Mongia's name has stopped cropping up? His last performance, a creditable 41, helped get India out of a hole in South Africa. Besides, in the (unlikely) event of Sehwag and Pathan not being picked in the playing eleven, he can share the burden of being the fifth bowler with Sachin.

And I'm not sure how many questions have been answered regarding the batting either. Bullying hapless opposition bowlers on flat tracks is all very well, but the 'batting line-up to die for' collapsed spectacularly on the one occasion when the pitch wasn't a batting paradise (Cuttack).

Am praying the curators prepare batting beauties for the World Cup as well.

When it comes to WC, I doubt if they will have the guts to go with inexperienced guys at the top like Gambheer and Uttappa. Even if these guys score some quick 30’s and 40’s on home pitches, does it really mean anything? They should have given these guys a game in SA and get a fair assessment. Also, with no domestic games for Sehwag, on what basis will they pick him again? Surely, on reputation alone!

Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajith Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan - this eleven are certain, possibly the final 11 for the 1st game of world cup. The remaining slots may go to Suresh Raina (good fielder), Munaf Patel (reserve fast bowler), Virender Sehwag (Reserve Middle Order - in case Yuvraj fails), Gautham Gambir (Reserve Opener). There could be only 1 or 2 places to be filled - that of reserve bowlers. Let us see how the upcoming Srilankan series helps our Selectors in selection (mind you, the Srilankans are coming without their two key bowlers - Vaas and Murali).

I don't think any questions have been answered. So Tendulkar appears to be back in form, Ganguly gets a couple of half centuries and Dravid is back to his consistent best. But they've been playing tracks at home, for the most part familiar flat pitches. The team has struggled in ODIs abroad for quite a while now. Sri Lanka are a stronger side now, but the challenge amounts to naught if the pitches are tailor-made for 350+ totals. Sehwag's form is still in doubt, Pathan doesn't seem to have regained his touch either and worse it looks like the fielding has dropped a few notches for the team as a whole. I doubt the selectors will have the nerve to sideline Sehwag or Pathan, so the possible differences to this world cup side compared to the previous one will be Dhoni, Pathan, Raina, Karthik, Uthappa/Gambhir and Sreesanth for Parthiv Patel, Mongia, Kaif, Srinath, Bangar and Nehra. How much of a difference will that make? Well for starters, the bowling looks weaker if thats possible, there's an additional keeper who will take the field without gloves, and we'll possibly have two woefully out-of-form match winners. To be honest, all the experiments seem to have taken us back to square one, and the selected players have less match practice. We're going to find ourselves in much the same position as the English team at the moment, only we've got a lot of experience to fall back on, and if our recent experience abroad is anything to go by, thats not very encouraging.

I don't think India's batting problems are still resolved. If you look at the tracks prepared in the home series, all of them were batting beauties. Indian's will struggle when there is some life in the pitch. I don't think we found answers to all the problems. We have to wait and see how our team performs in the slow and low tracks of the West Indies.