First test at MCG

All good things come to an end sooner or later, after doing exceptional well in the last two series, India have been found out by Australia and it comes as a timely reminder to the players that you can't win test matches against top teams with Individual performances, rather you need to have everyone in the team perform and do that consistently. It didn't help the Indians cause either by having just one practice match before going into the first test, which was in the end rained off due to unseasonal rain in Melbourne but if anyone is to be blamed, it has to be the BCCI which for all it's greed has to get it's priorities right. In hindsight had they come a week or two earlier the players would have got an extra game and also could have used the time to acclimatise with the surrounding and get their biological clock going. Heck even Sirils played two tour matches before starting their two match series against Australia earlier in the month. Hope the powers that be learn from this experience and prepare the itineraries in future keeping this in mind.

Well coming to the match itself, I think kumble made a bold decision to go in with Harbhajan instead of a third seamer and it did help that bajji performed in the second innings. Pointing didn't lose any time in opting to bat on winning the toss. I think RP and Zaheer Bowled beautifully in the first hour though were unlucky not to get any wickets and to the credit of the Aussie openers they didn't get bogged down, took some cheeky singles and before you knew they put on 50 runs on the board. It took kumble coming into the attack after lunch to get the first breakthrough and Indians thereafter got wickets at regular intervals with Zaheer again bowling his heart out but this time getting those wickets which eluded him in the first spell. Hayden as is his wont against India bludgeoned his way to another century before falling to a rather soft dismissal of Zaheer's bowling. Then Kumble chipped away at the tail-enders but not before they put on some valuable runs and ended up with a five-fer. To have bowled out Australia for 343 and that too after they put a 100+ partnership for the first wicket is a testament to how well the Indians bowled especially Kumble.

Dravid looked like a fish out of water and it didn't help him either that Jaffer at the other end is not someone really quick between the wickets like Dinesh karthik or someone like Sehwag who takes the initiative from the bowlers by attacking style of batting. What ever the advantage Indians had at the end of Aussie innings was negated by this approach, soon jaffer got out edging a slower ball from lee to gilli. Tendulkar and Laxman for a while looked like repeating their Sydney act from the last tour, before Laxman got a jaffa of a ball from lee, Tendulkar then took the attack to Brad hogg who was making his comeback to test cricket after a four year absence and as has been the case with Tendulkar of late, he got out when he looked good for a big one after making 62, which was the only score of 50+ in the match by an Indian batsmen. At this point the Aussie's got an opening and showed how to make the best of it. Yuvraj and dhoni, both went for a duck, kumble being the only tail-ender putting some price on his wicket. Ganguly did play well for some 40+runs before he was undone by a faster one from brad hogg.

Second time around too Indians did well to restrict the Australian batsmen but they had their task cut out by having a deficit of 150+ runs and from that point on India were never in the game and Australians finished the game with minimum of fuss at the end of day four winning the game comfortably by a margin of 347 runs. Though the margin looks big, India to their credit especially the bowlers did a marvelous job. What irks me more than anything is that Tendulkar, Ganguly & laxman got starts but weren't able to convert those into big scores and the failure of Yuvraj in both the innings, who was accommodated into the team by re-arranging the batting order which had a detrimental effect on the whole composition of the team but i am afraid this is how it is going to pan out for the whole series, sooner Dravid finds his feet the better otherwise I fear the worst. If I were the one choosing the team, would have Yuvraj penciled down as the 12'th man and would go with Dinesh Karthik, who performed in Similar conditions out there in South Africa or even Sehwag for the X-factor that he brings into the team with his style of play.

India has three days to sit down and work things out before the second test starts in SCG. Lets see if they learn from their mistakes or just get blown away by the Aussie juggernaut who are from the looks of it on their way of going to better the record of 16 consecutive wins set by the Steven Waugh's Immortals.

P.S:
Lee and bajji, both went past the 250 wickets mark.
Tendlia now has 8 50's against Australia which is a record he shares with Dravid.
Matthew Hayden now has 6 centuries in the 7 test matches that he played in MCG.
Kumble got his 35'th five-fer in the first innings.
Yuvraj has now patented the most pathetic look a batsmen can have when given out.
Dhoni is on his way of getting billed as a Flat track Bully.

India's tour of Australia

This boxing day test is going to be extra special because it is the 100'th test match to be played in MCG and it befits the occasion that Australia, the top dog at the moment takes on India, clearly the second best team in the world at the moment when it comes to tests, and it does help that they are coming back on an impressive performance in the wins against England and Pakistan.

As has been the case in the recent times India needs to take some tricky decisions regarding the composition of the playing eleven and invariably each have their own merits, and is a good sign to know that there is competition for places in the side which would keep the players on their toes and motivate them to perform better.

I still don't get it why all this talk of "yuvraj" has to play thing being played out, when clearly he has a long way to go before he can be talked on par with the likes of ganguly's and laxman's; Dravid & Sachin are altogether on different plane. Well that being said if the team management really wants to have Yuvraj in the mix of things then so be it but that should not be at the expense of an experienced campaigner like Dravid, who for all that has been said about him in the recent past is the best batsmen India have had away from home for the last 7-8 years and sending him out to open is sacrilege. I know the difference between the coming of one down and an opener can just be a single ball but that doesn't cut ice because people are comfortable in their own positions and when you ask them to come in at a different position, they are being asked to perform out of their comfort zone which might effect their over all game, classic examples of this going wrong are Laxman, who bats for Hyderabad mostly at one down, in the first half of his career and Yuvraj himself. So if they decide to go with Yuvraj then i would like to have him open and see what he is made off and if that fails, he will still make the test team one day, simply because he is a class act and sooner or later will make the same kind of impact that he's had in the other two shortened versions of the game. Dinesh Karthik deserves better but that's how Indian cricket is, am afraid he is on his way to becoming the next Aakash Chopra.

When it comes to Bowling kumble selects himself and as do Zaheer and RP provided they are fit. The last place is going to be tricky, going with three left armers is asking for troubles and Pathan still has to get back the swing he had when he came onto the scene to really warrant a place in the test team. So that leaves either Pankaj or Ishant but it's not worth giving Pankaj his first game without even seeing what he can do so Ishant coming back of a five-fer should get the fourth spot unless kumble wants to go with two spinners especially with the pitch being damp, it could help a finger spinner like bajji to get some purchase out of it.

All that said, here is for hoping a keenly contested series and may the better team win.