THE AUSSIE FLAVOUR By William Howarth  

How does India have to play this summer to get a good result in Australia?

  India has the daunting task of facing Australia on their home turf this summer as we all know. If India is to have any chance of at least being a competitive side, India needs to be able to play the Australian style of game. That is having a credible pace attack and batting lineup. At the moment I’m confident that this may be another easy win to Australia this summer if they bowl the same as they have been at the moment… YES! I am talking to you Zaheer Khan! The Indian side needs to practice on how to bowl effectively in Australian conditions and things will be looking up for them. My opinion is that India does not have a spinner that will be as effective as Shane Warne in Australian conditions and will struggle in the tests if they don’t have a spinner up to standard. For example the English spinners struggled in Australia last summer because they were bowing rubbish.

  Oh and of course this article wouldn’t be complete without the mention of India’s hero... I won’t give a penny out to anyone who guesses right… the one and only Sachin Tendulkar. The ‘Little Master’ was instrumental in India’s last tour of Australia; it was him that saved India from complete shame. Laxman also played well in the 165 he made in the Sydney test and Ganguly also played well in the ODI series. Sachin is a shining example of a player that has the guts and the determination to face the Australian barrage time and time again, and usually he doesn’t fail. I am a 100% sure that Sachin will at least score at least a couple more hundreds verses Australia in the tests this summer.

    The condition of Australian grounds is also what partly contributes to India’s past downfall in Australia. Like I was saying before, the Indian pace lineup needs to be totally restructured to have three pace bowlers that will be able to cause a threat to the Australian batsmen. You can’t have a spinner (Sehwag) opening the bowling followed by another spinner (Harbhajan) as it was the other night in the one day match. This is useless in Australian conditions because obviously Australian conditions are the opposite of India’s spinning and slower wickets. India needs more than one pace bowler performing in Australia or they are destined to lose. As for the batting… India is much stronger in this part of the game but I don’t think they will take to kindly to Agarkar having a repeat performance of the 1999/2000 series.

    As for the VB series India’s chances are greatly improved, as I’m sure nobody will disagree with me that India is a much better ODI side than a Test side. The One Day game is very unpredictable and even though the conditions won’t suit India, I am sure they have enough quality in their lineup to at least make a dent in the Australian armor. Zimbabwe won’t cause much of a threat probably but you can’t rule any team out when playing the One Day game.

     Fortunately for Indian fans, I’m sure that things are looking up for them and they should be able to prove that they have the quality that can win test series outside of the sub-continent regularly in the near future. The Indian side should be able to challenge Australia sometimes but I don’t think they will be able to keep up the pressure for the whole match which will ultimately let Australia off the hook and they will pounce on that opportunity as they nearly always do when a team lets their guard down… I will be waiting for the Indians to try prove me wrong. If they want to live up to their reputation as one of the emerging powers in cricket need to step up now. I’m confident India will play well this summer if they adapt to the conditions right.  India now is the time to shine.