Get Ready For the Action to Begin

The tour down under has begun and it is the usual way in which an Indian overseas tour starts, the high profile Indian batting line up struggling in overseas condition. All the talk of the great Indian middle order is looking lame. Yes, we have the best middle order in the world even better than the Aussies but Aussies have a great opening pair who seldom exposes their middle order to the new ball. It's very difficult to understand the logic behind why only one warm up game was scheduled in such an important series. It’s hard to understand BCCI’s logic behind this.

I would have given India a 30-70 chance of doing well in the series if the boy from my town was in the team. But Sreesanth's injury has left India’s fast bowling resource look bleak. The aggressiveness that he brings in to the test team will be missed. When the chips are down he has come with important breakthroughs. R P Singh has a big role to play as a support to Zaheer. India will most probably go into the first test with 3 fast bowlers and Kumble. The third fast bowler slot is still not decided and it would be good to have Ishant sharma in the team rather than the centurion Pathan. Bhajji will come into play in the spin assisting tracks of Adelaide and Sydney later in the series.

Time only can tell whether Dravid's promotion to open the innings will fire or not. But when the post mortem of the series is done this will be a major talking point. Jaffer has been in good touch in his return to international cricket scoring two double hundreds but this time it is a different ball game. The rest of the batting effort will depend on how our openers perform. In our last tour Akash Chopra (Surprisingly chosen ahead of the then inform S Ramesh) and Sehwag got India of to good starts which helped India pile huge runs in the series. Now comes the question of the X-Factor Sehwag. Injuries and poor Jaffer form can give a way to Sehwag entering the playing eleven. It will be hard for the team management to ignore a player of his caliber. Australians would definitely not like to see him in the team and memories of the last Boxing Day test would haunt them.

To swim against the tide one should take some calculated risk. Like bringing in Sreesanth into the sixteen if he proves his fitness in the pate semifinal for Kerala next week. He will be a good addition to the team as he can be tested in the two-day practice match before the Perth test. India can also surprise Australia by gambling Sehwag in the first test can catch them off guard. It would be interesting to see what gamble the team management takes to surprise the world champions.

Coming to the Australians their inexperienced bowling attack stood up against the Lankans last month. But Lankans did not put them under lot of pressure. It would be interesting to see how they react when teams put them under pressure. It will be a toss up between Shaun Tait and Brad Hogg with India’s vulnerability against pace making Tait’s case stronger. The drop in pitch could sway the decision but that is unlikely. Hogg will come into picture in spinner friendly Adelaide and Sydney. Aussie batting looks settled and threatening with all the players in form.

The series preview excites us and hopefully it will be a cracker. A record 70000 crowd for India-Australia test match is expected in MCG on Boxing Day and Aussies public will be hoping to see some competitive cricket at last this summer. Let's wait and see how it unfolds.