Melbourne Test – Review

Australia beat India by 337 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the Border Gavaskar Trophy on Day 4 at Melbourne. The story of Day 4 of the Boxing Day Test was much like that on Days 1, 2 and 3 – Australia dominated. India were outclassed with both bat and ball in this game.

Reports will suggest that the Indian bowlers did well. But on a suspect wicket, Australia managed 40.82 runs per wicket (694/17 in the match) against the Indian bowlers at almost 4 runs per over. How many sides have won Test matches after conceding those many runs? When India batted they encountered a bowling and fielding unit that was relentlessly top class. The Indian batsmen never mastered Stuart Clark and Brett Lee, and Mitchell Johnson was able to bowl well enough to keep the batsmen quiet. The slow outfield further accentuated the difference in fielding level between the two sides. The current Australian side is possibly the greatest all round fielding side in Test history. Symonds, Clarke, Hussey and Ponting are all world class fieldsmen in the Jonty Rhodes class. Bradley Hogg is not far behind. Brett Lee is probably the finest fieldsman amongst the fast bowlers of the world. Mitchell Johnson is probably a better fielder than any Indian barring Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar. It’s easy for Australia to hide Stuart Clark in the field. Only Tendulkar and Yuvraj amongst the Indian top order have an eye for the quick run comparable to any of the Aussies.

These are just all the generic realities which were in evidence in this Test. In addition to all these shortcomings, India’s most dependable batsman overseas finds himself in a terrible bind form wise. He can get the ball off the square. What’s more, India have asked him to open the batting! This gets him stuck, and also gets the other batsman stuck. Whats more, with his tenacious desire to not throw his hand away, he prolongs the agony for himself and his side, and allows the opposition to get on top. Any bowler will tell you that the best possible thing to do is to bowl at a batsman who is out of form and can’t get the ball off the square. Further, they are uncertain of their bowling combination. Harbhajan Singh is not quite the bowler he once was. RP Singh has looked ineffective. Further, they lost an important toss on an iffy wicket (more about the wicket later).

This series is looks like it will go exactly as every other home series under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy has gone for Australia – an easy triumph. Ponting has not lost a single Test match as captain in Australia. This is now his 4th home season at the helm. What do the visitors do from here?

The Indian strategy was always going to be to try and stay with the Aussies, especially in the first innings and to wait for a moment to sneak into a potentially winning position somewhere. They have failed to do so at Melbourne. The turning point was Tendulkar’s wicket at 3/120 in the first innings. He was batting like a bomb and had managed to overcome the early advantage which the Aussies had achieved thanks to Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer’s inability to rotate the strike (the quality of the Aussie fielding had something to do with this). Had he gone on to make a hundred, India might have accomplished their task of competing on the first innings. The key advantage of competing on the first innings, is that it puts the Aussies under pressure at the business end of the game. They would not put in the same clinical world beating flawless show that they did today if they had the pressure of the scoreboard and a realistic threat of defeat. India have to find a way to compete on the first innings.

Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman all look in reasonably good form. Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Dhoni never got going, so no real conclusion can be drawn as to their position. Rahul Dravid is obviously struggling and his cause has not been helped by him being asked to open the batting. Wasim Jaffer has had one of his characteristically ordinary Test matches. Going by his track record since his comeback against England in 2006, he ought to make runs in atleast one innings at Sydney. Sourav Ganguly is batting too low in the batting order given his terrific form. VVS Laxman is not quite the batsman he was in 2003-04, and may not be suited to number 3. In fact, even in 2003-04, Laxman’s success came at number 5.

As i see it, India have only 2 realistic options going into the Sydney Test, given their squad and the current form of their players. In batting order, these would be

Jaffer, Karthik, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj, Irfan, Kumble, Zaheer, Harbhajan

OR

Jaffer, Karthik, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Irfan, Kumble, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Ishant

The latter option would be a bold move – playing 5 bowlers, giving India a chance to compete with the ball, because let’s face it, India are not going to win too many Test matches conceding 41 runs/wicket. There are those who will argue however, that playing 5th bowler who is not exactly Wasim Akram won’t be much use from the wicket taking point of view. They would be making a good point.

RP Singh has not looked threatening and doesn’t quite possess the required variety of arrows in his quiver to make him a truly threatening bowler in conditions where the ball doesn’t seam all day. Besides, there is a sameness to the Indian attack with Zaheer and RP playing in the same eleven.

Harbhajan Singh’s form has been patchy, but India will just have to hope he comes good. It can’t do his confidence any good that the Australian left handed opening pair were able to sweep him against the break without once lobbing the ball up in the air. That he was bowling without a short fine leg, suggests that he didn’t expect the traditional miscue either. If the Sydney wicket is like it is reputed to be (Melbourne did not behave like it was supposed to), he might get an opportunity to come good. Speaking of wickets, if a Melbourne like wicket had been offered in India, one can imagine the furore that would have ensued against BCCI.

Using Ganguly at number 3 would break up the string of right handers which the Australians are able to bowl at in the current line up. Besides, he’s in form and has hinted more than once that he would prefer to bat higher up the batting order.

It would however be a mistake in my view to persist with Rahul Dravid opening the batting, especially given his current form. I suspect though, that India will persist with him. There is no pressure to leave him out of the playing eleven, not when the available option is Virender Sehwag, whose form if anything has been even more woeful. If Sehwag has to be played, he will be played at the expense of Wasim Jaffer. Sehwag brings his off breaks to the side in addition to the possibility of a swashbuckling, aggressive century.

The magnitude of this defeat dictates significant changes for Sydney. It may be too late from the point of view of the series by the time the Perth Test comes around. It remains to be seen how the Indian team management reacts. Will they gamble with Sehwag? Or will they go back to the tried and tested combination of Jaffer-Karthik and leave Dhoni out? Do they consider leaving Dhoni out to be an option at all?

Whatever the answer to those questions may be, the great lesson of the Boxing Day Test is that Australia are as world class as ever. Their batting is as strong as ever, as is their bowling depth. Their Test match fielding is unparalleled. All in all, they are the best team in the world by a long margin.

Well played Australia…..

Melbourne Test – Day 3

India’s only hope of ending Day 3 on even remotely even terms with the hosts was to bowl them out cheaply in their second innings. At 4/161, India seemed to have made some progress in this direction. Andrew Symonds came along and produced a quick fire 42 which reduced India to waiting for the declaration. India could not find their Stuart Clark – someone who could run through the lower middle order. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh toiled manfully as India hoped to delay the Australian declaration. It was all in all a difficult day. When bowlers toil manfully, it usually means they’re fighting a losing battle. The bowling attack has been bested. India showed in the first innings of the match that they had the ability to keep the Australian batting in check. However, the manner of the Australian dismissals indicated that the Aussie batsmen contributed to the dismissals as much as India’s bowlers. When India batted, their batsmen were bested by the quality of Clark and Lee. Tendulkar and Ganguly apart, all the other Indian batsmen were beaten and dismissed. At the end of Day 3 of the boxing day test, it is fair to say that India have been outclassed with both bat and ball.

Australia added to the “aggression” myth by declaring with 8 overs to spare on the third day – a useless declaration in my view, with two full days remaining. These decisions seem to be mainly for public consumption. They reinforce the perception of a relentless juggernaut, not willing to concede an inch. If it was simply a case of wanting to win the Test match, they could have batted tomorrow until they got bowled out and still won it. After all, is anybody arguing that they may bowl India out in 188 overs but not in 150? If the declaration was supposed to have surprised the Indian batsmen, im almost certain that it didn’t. India knew at tea or even earlier that such a declaration was a possibility. Further, given Rahul Dravid’s terrible form, would it not have been better to declare overnight and let Dravid walk out tomorrow with the prospect of having to survive an entire day, without giving him the benefit of an easier target – that of having to bat out 8 overs? As it happened, he walked out, took first strike and played out the day.

Whatever happens tomorrow, what one hopes for is that India are able to make the Australians sweat for their wickets. Test matches are rarely won in 4th innings run chases which are the result of declarations. In fact, the only time in recent years when this has been accomplished successfully was when Graeme Smith made a quixotic declaration on the last day in desperate quest of a series leveling victory. Ricky Ponting on that occasion played a brilliant innings (in his 100th Test match) to win the game for Australia. So chances of an Indian victory are slim.

My hopes, strangely enough, are pinned on Rahul Dravid. He’s out of form, low on confidence and has looked quite ordinary at the crease. He is a great batsman however, and i want him to do well very badly. It would be a shame if he lost his place in the side if India lost tomorrow itself. He has shown a lot of character in resigning from the captaincy, accepting that he was not enjoying the job and that it had had an adverse effect on his batting. This is of course in sharp contrast to his predecessor who was clearly in denial when he was dropped in 2005. To this day, Ganguly maintains that “the manner of his dismissal” was not right. This of course begs the question – how would he have liked to have been brought face to face with reality? It would be a shame if Rahul Dravid were unable to find second wind from somewhere and come back from the brink. He is not given to such dramatic streaks. His has been a steady, relentless ascent to the pinnacle of batsmanship. He deserves a break.

It is with this naive hope that events will break in India’s and Dravid’s favor, that i look forward to Day 4 of the Melbourne Test. On Dravid’s accomplished shoulders lie the hopes of India in this series opener. They may be out of rythm right now, but they are also best suited to guide an Indian revival. There is on other suggestion. The in-form left handed Ganguly at number 3 would test the Australian bowlers and given them the challenge of bowling to a left hand right hand bowling combination. Promoting in form batsmen to number three has traditionally worked for India in the past as Ganguly will know.

India have been well and truly beaten so far in this game. With the weather set fair for days four and five, an inconclusive result is out of the question. Australias batsmen looked untroubled against the Indian bowling today, and India will take heart from that.

Melbourne Test Day 2

Day 2 began promisingly for India, with Zaheer Khan dismissing the last Aussie batsman for the addition of only six runs to the overnight score. Still, 343 was a good total. The moment of truth arrived when Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walked out to bat for India to face Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark.

This was the first of India’s gambles for this Test, with a scratch opening combination. They had discontinued the Karthik-Jaffer combination. Karthik had struggled against Pakistan and a fifty in the middle order on the last day at Bangalore did not help him. This shift to Jaffer and Dravid as i wrote before was a risk compared to the tried and tested Jaffer-Karthik combination. If it worked, the reward would be significant too. Australia tend to be at the best when the ball is new, and one school of thought would say that this should be tackled by making the batting order deeper, rather than by propping it up at the top. Another would say that India should play the strongest possible opening pair to tackle them head on.

As it turned out, a woefully out of form Rahul Dravid was faced with an Australian opening bowling pair in crackling form. An inform Dravid might have taken to Mitchell Johnson, who bowled an impeccable line (to his field), but in his current form, with his judgement and confidence outside off stump in tatters, he was reduced to leaving everything he could. When he did try to attack, he played an missed many times, was dropped at third slip once, was caught at second slip off a no ball once, and had one successful stroke for two, and that too only when Johnson came round the wicket. It was as good as batting blind for Dravid. Sadly, he seemed to set the tone for the rest of the innings. There is much criticism about the tactics – that he wasn’t looking to push singles, but i don’t think it was a matter of him not trying, it was basically a matter of him not being able to. What we saw was a perfect storm created by the big occasion, a pumped up attack of not inconsiderable quality and an out of form batsman of great class being pushed into an unfamiliar role.

I looked back at the 2006-07 Ashes series for pointers. India are playing a side which has won 14 straight Test matches, and 5 of those came in the Ashes. McGrath and Warne were playing then, and so it was all presumably different. It doubtless was. But Lee and Clark formed the Australian attack in that series along with Warne and McGrath. I expected to find Warne and McGrath dominating the Australian bowling averages in that series. Clark and Lee together took 46 wickets at 24.06 in that series. Warne and McGrath took 43 wickets a 27.9. Clark led the Australian bowling averages, by a long way. He took 26 wickets at 17! Whats more, and this i always find to be the most telling statistic for a top pace bowler – he conceded 2.27 runs per over, to McGrath’s 2.4. Since that Ashes series, Brett Lee has now had 5 consecutive innings in which he’s taken 4 wickets in an innings. McGrath and Warne are clearly irreplaceable. They retired as all time greats and batting line ups around the world were happy to see them go. I just wonder, and this may be premature, whether in a few years time we will be waiting for the era of Lee and Clark to end.

Clark came on and decimated India’s middle order. He accounted for Dravid, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. While Lee accounted for Jaffer, Ganguly, Kumble and Zaheer Khan. The brief period of Indian ascendancy was during the Tendulkar – Ganguly partnership. Both these players have spent most of this year either turning back the clock, or being engaged in a titanic struggle to find the ability and confidence to turn it back. Tendulkar’s battles (there is no other way of describing those innings) at Cape Town, Trent Bridge and the Oval gave way to his sumptuous ODI form against England and Australia and to his feast against Pakistan. Ganguly’s battling half centuries in South Africa and England lead to his run glut against the visiting Pakistan side.Until Tendulkar fell to one which misbehaved ever so slightly off the wicket from Clark, it looked as though we could sit back and enjoy yet another vintage stand. Both players looked in touch (in contrast to Dravid, who didn’t), and both players benefited from not having to bat with Dravid, something which Wasim Jaffer and VVS Laxman did. Neither VVS nor Jaffer were ever settled enough to be able to take some pressure off Dravid by taking on the bowling. Tendulkar might have been able to help him.

196 all out is a disappointing first innings score. India ought to have matched the Australians, or at least gotten within 50 runs of their total. As it happens, Australia end day two having taken 10 of the 20 wickets that they need to take, with a lead of 179. Australia lost 10/208 in their first innings. India can hope for a better effort in the second innings. A 4th innings chase of under 400, would be something to dream about for India. The bowlers will have to rescue India again for that to happen.

I don’t think Indian fans should throw in the towel yet. There is still cricket to be played in this game, and there is too much quality there for the result to be a foregone conclusion.

India arrive in Australia

As tours go, this is not what Fred Trueman would have called a “cream and jelly tour” for India. Runs, wickets and victories will have to be earned the hard way, while the hosts expect to win as a matter of course. I suspect that public expectation and public opinion in India about this tour ranges somewhere between “we’re going to get hammered” and “we’re going to be very competitive”. This is of course amongst those who are actually interested in the cricket.

“Australia” is not the sparsely populated island continent in the Southern Hemisphere, it is gold in terms of all things cricketing for most cricket fans. The bouncy pitches of “OstraliaandSauthafrica” test our batsmen, as though playing on wickets in India or Pakistan or Sri Lanka is some how a lesser challenge than playing in these Southern cricketing paradises (i know it sounds funny in plural, but it seems especially appropriate that way). India have already shot themselves in both feet by producing flat, slow and low pitches in Kolkata and Bangalore. How could they not have thought about the MCG and Perth?

Then there is speculation about a drop-in pitch. This dropping, unlike the bird variety, can be controlled to a fine degree – or so everybody thinks. Drop-In pitches are prepared in what might be considered pitch laboratories, in controlled conditions, with the result that well-prepared pitches can be ensured, and more importantly, the behaviour of pitches can be effectively predicted. Since nobody really knows how this yet to be concieved pitch will behave, and since Australian Cricket people are not of the shy variety, there is plenty of un-shyness flying around. Glenn McGrath offered the ultimate McGrathesque opinion that Australia should abandon the idea of playing a spinner, and simply play four quick bowlers. Even he doesn’t know how many birds he killed with that one stone. Im certain he intended it to be a prolific effort. Andrew Hilditch (he who lost his Test place in the Australian side of the mid-eighties because he couldn’t resist playing the hook shot straight down fine-leg’s throat), now one of the three wise men for Australia, is worried about whether or not the pitch will yield reverse swing for Tait and co.! Stuart Clark, who actually played at the MCG (im not sure if it was drop in; im not even sure if drop-in is optional) a few days ago couldn’t hide his disappointment. He said the pitch was the kind where “after 10 overs of the new ball there was 1 slip and short covers everywhere”. One assumes this was due to the lack of lateral movement, and not because of an endless barrage of half volleys. Currently, its all up in the air.

Bradley Hogg is likely to play and Harbhajan Singh thinks he isn’t good enough to be bowling in a Test Match. I suspect that many of the Indian batsmen can’t pick Bradley Hogg from the hand. Stuart MacGill has opined that they don’t actually care what a spinner is bowling from the hand, but i think this time around they will have to be watchful. The difference between Test and ODI cricket though, is that in ODI cricket, with the field spread, if a spinner bowls 3 half volleys and 3 good deliveries, it is entirely likely that the three half volleys will be tapped to the deep-set straight field for singles and the three goodish length balls will go to cover or mid-wicket and be “dot-balls”. In Test Cricket, thats a bad over, for at least one of the three half volleys is bound to be hit for four, and the six balls are likely to convey absolute dominance of bat over ball. Hogg will have to overcome this, and i suspect this is what Anil Kumble was referring to when he said “Test Cricket of course is a completely different ball game”.

The Indian pace attack is nondescript as usual. I wonder when we in India will find our Stuart MacGill who will finally admit that the Australian batsmen don’t really seem to care what the Indian pace attack delivers. This time around though, the Australians may be in for a surprise. Zaheer Khan was brilliant in England and was reliably accurate against Pakistan until he broke down. Irfan Pathan worked up a surprising amount of pace against Pakistan at Bangalore, if the admittedly erratic speed gun at the Chinnaswamy is to be believed, and RP Singh will hopefully be fighting fit come boxing day. Whats more, even if one of them is not fit, Ishant Sharma looked quite good and for once, i hope that the wishes of our “OstraliaandSauthAfrica” crowd vis a vis the bounce in the wickets is true. Of course, he might bowl short and wide and get hammered by the “cut and the pull” or the “horizontal bat shots” which the Australian school of batting seems to thrive on. For once though, India will travel to Australia with a pace attack which has actually won a series for India in overseas conditions. It must bring higher expectations, though if Australia make 500 in each of their 4 first innings, do you know who will be blamed for India not winning? It is to them that i now turn.

India’s middle order is on its 3rd tour of Australia. Tendulkar apart, the other three have improved with each tour. Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman struggled in 2000 (apart from 1 innings by VVS), but made 5 Test centuries between them in 2003-04. In addition to these four stalwarts, India have also selected that other marauder from 2003-04 – Virender Sehwag. He may feel slightly anemic right now, but if he strikes form against Victoria, it will leave Anil Kumble with a pleasant headache (apart from confirming Dilip Vengsarkar as one of the greatest hunch selectors in the history of India’s selection). Ideally, only one out of Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Dhoni should play. With Yuvraj Singh and Virendra Sehwag (and his off spin) in India’s ranks, it would be silly to play both wicketkeepers in the eleven. Yuvraj is a better Test batsman than Dhoni. If Dinesh Karthik opens the batting, it might be possible to play Yuvraj Singh at number 7.

India will have to watch out for the left handers in the Aussie line up. Left Handers have done well against India in recent times. It is ironic that the greatest left hander of them all did not quite take advantage of this weakness. Mathew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Michael Hussey and Adam Gilchrist will test them. Then there is Ponting. Michael Clarke, if i could put it this way, is the weak link in this Australian batting line up. He of course made 155 against India at Bangalore on Test debut three years ago.

Realistically, one expects India to be competitive – to stay in the game and hope for a chance to break through the Aussie line up like they did on that amazing 4th day at Adelaide 4 years ago almost to the day (On 15th December 2003, Ajit Agarkar took 6/42 to bowl Australia out for 196 and set up a famous Indian victory).

Having conceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia at Nagpur in 2004, this will be a formidable challenge – one worthy of India’s greatest cricketing generation.