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Looking Ahead: Playing for Pride and Practice |
- A Preview to the 4th
Test at Mumbai by Venkat
Totally outwitted, outclassed and outplayed by
Australia in the Third Test at Nagpur, the
morale in the Indian camp will be a low that its
never seen in the past few years. While it has
not been a typical India-Australia series with
constant inter-session wrangles for supremacy, a
meek surrender by India has put them in an
unusual position where the series has been lost
and they have only pride and not the Border-Gavaskar
trophy to play for. In all likelyness, if the
Indians wanted an ideal preparatory game before
the Proteas' came over, this was it !
Cricketfundas.com gives you an exclusive
analytical preview to the fourth India vs
Australia Test match at
Mumbai.
Pitch:
The Australians conquering the Final Frontier
has overshadowed almost everything in India,
including the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium.
Unlike Nagpur, where the curator was blamed for
whatever the pitch conditions were, in Mumbai,
the wicket looks a "true" one. We will see
plenty of runs scored in the first 2 days and 2
sessions of the 3rd day, and will start turning
towards the end of day 3. The wicket will infact
get slow and truly some unpredictable bounce is
expected from the third session of Day 4. The
soil at the Wankhede is of loose nature and we
could see a major role of the footmarks in this
Test match. The Wankhede wicket is more of a
result-oriented wicket and the team that takes
the initiative towards the result, ends up
winning it all. As for the toss, refer to the
newly released version of Australian Secrets to
Victory in India - Chapter 1 - Win the toss and
bat first !
India:
The aftermath of the series defeat has had a
huge impact over the outlook of the Indian
squad. There have been changes here, changes
there and changes everywhere. And perhaps these
changes are for the good and the future. The
Indians are back in a ground which they would
not like to play on, especially at this stage.
The last five games here have seen the visitors
dominate and 3 of them have been a win for the
opposition. Its about time that the Indians
change their fortunes on this ground. With the
axe finally falling on Akash Chopra, after his
string of poor scores, it looks like yet another
new opening partner will be taking guard for
India along with Virender Sehwag. Who will be
the man in question ? For the first time in so
many home series, we have seen two specialists
in Dheeraj Jadhav and Gautam Gambhir in the
squad, but it will only be one of them who will
take the field. The odds are slightly in favour
of Gautam Gambhir as he has previous
International experience although against
Bangladesh. Saurav Ganguly's fitness problems
will basically mean that Mohammad Kaif will get
a chance to further his impressive run as a Test
player. It is about time that the middle-order
with the likes of Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar
stand up and be counted. Laxman has suddenly
from being a match winner has had himself to be
scrutinized by the selectors, and this could
work against him when he plays in Mumbai. The
bowling unit looks a bit more focussed with
Zaheer Khan back to good form. We expect
Harbhajan Singh to be back in place of Kartik
although the latter bowled exceptionally well at
Nagpur. It would be interesting to see if SS
Paul gets a chance to make his debut or will the
management go for the tried and tested Ashish
Nehra. One big change going into this test match
will be the wicketkeeper. Dinesh Kartik is all
set to make his test debut for India and it'll
be interesting to see if he is the correct
answer to India's questions with regards to
keeping. In a way one can say that the ball is
in the Indian court, to put up a better show and
to cheer up the frowns and frets on the faces of
many an Indian fan. India will have to go with a
fearless and nothing to lose attitude as they
have everything to gain vis-a-vis form and match
practice for the series against South Africa.
Australia:
They have done what they had set out to - Win
the series against India in India. But, they may
feel that the task is just not yet finished,
as they always look to win matches. And nothing
seems different for this test match. It'll be
the usual batting line up, but the only change
will be with respect to Darren Lehmann, who tore
his muscle in Nagpur. It will be interesting to
see if yet another Baggy Green in the form of
Brad Hodge is introduced to international
cricket or will the Punter be back. If what
Darren Lehmann said in Nagur is to be believed,
the Aussies may just try and let Ponting rest if
they already won the series, which they have
done successfully. Its as
though everything has gone according to the
script they had written for themselves. All of a
sudden, Jason Gillespie's bowling looks a
serious threat for the batsmen, Micheal
Kasprowicz is becoming a bowler one cannot
afford to relax against, Shane Warne has become
extra potent in India...things are just
happening for the Aussies, and why wouldn't they
happen ! They have shown great determination and
hunger to win a series in India, and as one can
expect from the Aussies, they would like a 3-0
win anytime over a 2-1 series win. So we can
expect the Aussies to come hard at the Indians
to make that a 3-0 series win for them.
All in all, this match looks to be one in which
there can be only gainers, not losers. This
could well be the match that could decide the
fate of many an Indian cricketer, with the likes
of Laxman consistently failing. Its all left to
see how they rise to this self-applied pressure.
A win for India will be certainly a morale
booster, ahead of the South Africa series, and a
win for the Aussies will certainly be a great
one as they have a long summer ahead of them. At
the end of the day, hard cricket will be the
secret of success at Mumbai.
Cricketfundas.com Probable XI (Subject to
Changes in the Final XI)
India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender
Sehwag, Dheeraj Jadhav/Gautam Gambhir, Sachin
Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh
Karthik (Wicket-Keeper), Anil Kumble, Harbhajan
Singh, Zaheer Khan, SS Paul/Ashish Nehra
Australia: Adam Gilchrist (Captain and
Wicket-Keeper), Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer,
Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Micheal Clarke,
Brad Hodge/Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Micheal
Kasprowicz, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie.
**(Ricky Ponting may lead Australia if he plays)
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