India vs. Australia - Down Under - 2007-08

“Hello Viewers…good morning….clear skies….beautiful weather…near perfect conditions here at the ground….” this is what you will hear time and again in the next couple of months when you turn on to the India vs. Australia Cricket (4 Test Matches) Series Down Under this year.

Welcome to my blog once again !!! The home series against Pakistan, truly speaking, was never expected to be a big test for India and it indeed turned out to be like that. Bad pitches, lack of quality players in Pakistan this time around turned the series into a dull one. Honestly, the usual India-Pakistan series hype was missing big time.

Anyways let me analyze India's performance and prospects of the Australia (Test) series. While all the Indian batsmen got a decent hit against Pakistan, only Dinesh Karthik failed in the full series. He made it into the squad since he is a team player and has the backing of the team management. Even though Karthik was the highest scorer for India against England, I definitely don't think he is that good to be in the first choice 11.

One batsman who had a backdoor entry into the squad even though he was not a part of the 24 is Virendar Sehwag. Looks like Kumble had enough confidence and hence got him onboard. Absolutely no doubt questioning Sehwag's skills & ability and the amount of damage he can do opening. The only problem right now is that he is not in form and hence lacks a bit of confidence. But I always feel that good players are just 1 innings away from getting back into form. Once Sehwag is in the middle and can get those initial 2-3 boundaries, his confidence will be back and that will be the key. True, his selection above others will be a big gamble....but what the hell...I feel the gamble is worth it especially against Australia since the only way to beat them is by playing aggressively and Sehwag is one of the guys who gives us an aggressive option.

Looking at the batting line up for the practice match, looks like they have decided that for the 1st test it will be Jaffer, Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Yuvraj and Dhoni (wk) and 4 bowlers.

I guess the toss for the last position was between Sehwag and Yuvraj. And Yuvi won the nod because he is definitely the man in good form, high in confidence and seems to be the playing his best ever. Fair enough. That would mean dropping someone else to accommodate Sehwag.

As always Laxman is one guy who is always under the scanner. But it will be tough to drop him since he has always performed exceedingly well against Aus. Or else they should be ready to drop Jaffer to get in Sehwag. Batsmen must look to play shots and score at a good run rate. Ball will come up to the bat nicely and there is good value for shots provided you back yourself and play aggressively. You win by having runs on the board not by just staying at the crease.

Playing against Aus anywhere is tough and playing them in Aus is tougher. Tough situations sometimes call for tough decisions. Kumble and management must be ready to take calculated risks esp. at the beginning of the series and not later in the series trying to do catch up work.

The bigger concern for India will be that of the bowlers. Its not rocket science that you need to take 20 wickets to win a Test. But who is going to get us the 20 wickets. In the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka, Australia rarely looked in trouble and they regularly cranked up scores of more than 550 without losing even 5 wickets. Aus always has the habit of posting very high scores in the region of 550-600 and that too at a fast rate and hence visiting teams are always playing catch up for most of the time.

Somehow India needs to get Aus out for low scores. That will not be an easy joke. One way to do that is to take early wickets with the hard swinging new ball ala. what England did in the Ashes back in 2005. The other thing is Aus are slightly vulnerable to good leg spin. This is where I feel Tendulkar will be handy. Kumble should look to use him in small 3-4 over spells and look to him to take wickets rather than use him as a part-time bowler.

India will most probably go with 4 bowlers and look to Tendulkar and Ganguly to provide some support. Kumble will form the line up with 3 fast bowlers which will be mostly Zaheer, and 2 from RP Singh, Pathan and Ishant. RP will most probably get a go since he did well against England. So if 2 left armers are selected then Pathan might be left out for Ishant to provide variety by being a right armer. But Pathan can bat well so we never know….Kumble might even decide to go with Pathan instead of RP or Ishant. That looks to be seen.

Every single person in the Aus squad is very dangerous. There is no weak link in the team and that’s their biggest strength. Ponting and co. look in ominous batting form and their top order fired against SL. Brett Lee led attack did really well by dismissing SL quite easily 4 times. Australia looks to be in prime form and so India has its task cut out.

Last but not the least Kumble and his team must always take calculated risks and look to WIN and not to Draw. Not declare the way they did in Bangalore (3rd Test vs. Pakistan) and also at the Oval (3rd Test vs. England). That’s a very conservative game plan. The typical Indian defensive mindset should end now. Else Aus will roll over us.

My Prediction: 2-1……if we are lucky.....sorry guys...I mean Australia 2 and India 1 :-(