Since setting foot on Australia, the dominant tenor
of conversation has been how Australia will start the India series as the underdog. For the first time in India-Australia cricket history, barring 1978, when a number of Australian players were lost to Packer, the Aussies are on the back foot at the start of the series. The squad looks like half a hospital to start with. No Cummins, no Johnson, no Cutting, a half-fit Watson who will not bowl, a semi-fit Marsh and a near-fit Harris, there?s much for Dhoni?s men to rejoice. And as I write there?s news that Dave Warner, after his spectacular debut against New Zealand, is suffering from a stiff back and James Pattinson, Australia?s find of the season, has a slight side strain. What this means is that Australia will field a bowling unit that will hardly evoke a scare in the minds of the Indians. It also means this is India?s best chance to win, to roll the Australians over and make a dream start in Melbourne.
The bad first day against the Chairman?s XI in Canberra notwithstanding, this Indian side has enough batting firepower to scare the Aussies and finally it is time for Sehwag and company to get good in their attempt to conquer India?s final frontier.
Every sports bulletin on cricket in Australia inevitably mentions Virender Sehwag. His 219 has catapulted Sehwag to the status of enemy number one and the player to watch out for in the series. For me he was always the one to watch out for. A cursory look at India?s victories over the past five years and Sehwag?s indispensability at the top of the order is more than evident. The other major point of discussion is the nature of the track at the MCG?Will the Australians prepare a batting deck or will they give the Indians a seam friendly track? The argument goes thus?don?t give the Indians batting decks, for then, they will murder a half-baked Australian bowling. Sehwag, on the other hand, is praying that the Australians prepare tracks where the ball will swing. His argument is simple, ?England was an aberration. Our batting is good enough to score on any surface. If the ball starts to do something our bowling deficiencies will be masked over and the Indian bowling unit becomes competitive straightaway.?
Sehwag has a point. Most of India?s overseas victories, in recent times, have come on surfaces where the ball has done a bit and the Indian bowlers have had assistance on offer. Whether it was Perth in 2008 or Durban in 2010, the tracks had much to offer the bowlers. The Indian batters, champions in their own right, scored enough on these surfaces to set it up for the bowlers to mat the opposition. Sehwag is hoping for an encore. With the team in decent form it is hard to believe that a swinging track will floor the Indians the way Anderson and Bresnan managed to do in England. Australia is no England and the Indians are much better prepared this time round, something the captain mentioned in his very first press conference on the Australian soil.
The build-up has been excellent. The expectation is growing by the day. The big bash notwithstanding, India Australia on Boxing Day is a huge draw and it will be no surprise to see 80,000 people turn up on the first day of the biggest Test series of the year.
Finally, there?s Ricky Ponting. Should he play or should he not? Is he over the hill or does he still have some cricket left in him? Should he be persisted with or should he be asked to call it a day? There are polls being conducted in leading dailies on Ponting?s future. As far as I am concerned the answer is simple. Do the Australian selectors have someone better to replace Ponting? If they do, the answer is self evident. If they don?t all this pressure isn?t doing Ponting any good. On the issue of his final resurgence, that is, can he do a Dravid or a Tendulkar, the jury is divided. I for one feel he is still the best in the business in Australia and he still has it in him to thwart the Indian push this time round. For the sake of Indian cricket I sincerely hope I am proven wrong.
The writer is a sports historian