Following the marvellous victory at Nagpur, India would like to believe that they have gained the upper hand in the series for the moment. Add to it Australia’s injury woes as well as the training debacle at Kotla – they had to skip proper practice due to wet pitches – and India are in with a realistically great chance of going 2-1 up in the series. That said, they need to exercise caution. India have often stumbled in the recent past due to complacency, the signs of which were there during the closing stages in Nagpur. Their lethargic approach meant the last Aussie pair managed to get some good batting practice. However, if the Indians do get their act right for the second time running, Australia could be in for a real tough time.

What the Australians need at the present moment is an uplifting effort from one of their seniors. A century from either among Ponting, Hussey or Watson can turn things around for them. One exceptional performance is often enough to ensure a side’s win in a one-dayer. More than their batting though, it is their bowling to which they need to give some serious thought. Now that Brett Lee is unavailable, Mitchell Johnson has to take over the responsibility of the senior bowling pro. True, he himself is not 100 per cent fit. However, considering the state of his team, he will be expected to rise above the pain and perform.

Ben Hilfenhaus found the going pretty tough at Nagpur, which means the other pacer in the squad Doug Bollinger might get a chance, so also may Moises Henriques, who could replace Adam Voges, in an effort to strengthen the all-round department. Peter Siddle and Nathan Hauritz have been Australia’s two best bowlers on display so far and their side would want them to continue in the same vein. If anything, Hauritz will be expected to be slightly more attacking.

Probably the only good news the Australian team has received in recent hours is that Tim Paine’s replacement Graham Manou will arrive in time for the Delhi match. That he also has some international experience is an additional plus. But expecting something extraordinary from him would be asking for too much, as he is sure to suffer from some amount of jetlag. Even so, the fact that he will available itself is good enough for Australia considering the crisis situation.

In sharp contrast, India are suddenly looking like a winning combination. With Gambhir, Dhoni and Raina among the runs, India managed to put up a rock-solid batting performance at Nagpur. Add to it, the ominous cameos played by Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag and the fact that Tendulkar has yet to reach double figures in the tournament. The opposition camp would be feeling rather jittery. One has to keep in mind though that it was just one game where everything clicked. The Aussies would undoubtedly come back hard at the Indians despite all their troubles.

The home side thus needs to carry on from where they finished off on Wednesday. The low, slow Kotla pitch will offer a tougher challenge and the batters need to be prepared to adapt to the conditions. Bowling wise as well the Indians must stick to their guns. Now that Ishant Sharma has rediscovered his rhythm, he should also realize what suits him best. Praveen Kumar has to just continue doing what he did so well at Nagpur, get the early breakthroughs as well as dry up the runs. The temporary spearhead of the bowling attack, Ashish Nehra, is going through one of his better patches and India would hope it lasts for a longer duration, since his presence makes the bowling line-up all the more potent. Regarding Harbhajan Singh, it remains to be seen how he is dealt with – both by the team management and the Aussie batsmen, who are getting increasing confident against him.

As mentioned in the very beginning, all the pointers suggest India have the upper hand. But while they do possess the better arsenal, the men in blue still have to go out and perform. How well India exploit this golden opportunity will in all certainty determine the fate of the game.

The BCCI selectors decided to name the squad that was selected for Vadodara and Nagpur for the next two ODIs against Australia. This announcement was made by the chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth, following India’s series-levelling, comprehensive 99-run win at Nagpur.

There was plenty of pressure on fast bowler Ishant Sharma and medium-pacer Praveen Kumar and Suresh Raina, to some extent, to retain their places. However, impressive showing by the trio at Nagpur meant India are confident of going in with an unchanged squad, at least for the next two matches. Munaf Patel and Sudeep Tyagi continue to remain in the squad as back up for the first-choice pacers.

The third and fourth ODIs will be held in Delhi and Mohali on October 31 and November 2 respectively.

The squad

MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Amit Mishra, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Sudeep Tyagi, Yuvraj Singh

More ‘Paine’ for Australia

Meanwhile, Australian wicketkeeper Tim Paine, who has impressed in both the games played against India, is the latest in the injury list for the visiting team. The dashing batsman will miss the remainder of the series due to a broken finger. Paine picked up the injury during Australia’s disastrous 99-run defeat in the second match of the seven-game series at Nagpur.
Paine, who himself was drafted into the Australian side as a replacement for the already injured Brad Haddin, will now be replaced by Graham Manou. He is likely to feature in the third one-dayer to be held New Delhi on Saturday.
Earlier, the Aussies missed the services of pace spearhead Brett Lee and all-rounder James Hopes during the team’s loss at Nagpur. Also missing from the series due to injuries are vice-captain and middle-order batsman Michael Clarke as well as left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken. Owing to the injuries, New South Wales’ Moises Henriques was called in as cover by the Aussie management.

Carrying on the momentum they gained from the Harbhajan-Praveen partnership during the first ODI, India put up a near flawless performance at Nagpur They won by 99 runs to the level the series 1-1, heading into Delhi. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the standout performer for the Indians, stroking a marvellous 124. Further, there were crucial contributions from the other members of the XI too, making it an excellent team effort. Gautam Gambhir continued his good form with a fluent 76 while Suresh Raina relieved some of the pressure on him, making a whirlwind 62.

In the bowling department as well India had their heroes. Praveen Kumar made up for his shabby showing at Vadodara by bowling a probing first spell, claiming two wickets. Ishant Sharma showed further signs of improvement by picking up a couple of scalps and bowling economically, whereas part-timer Ravindra Jadeja ended up being the surprise package, bagging three Australian wickets.

On the other hand, the only thing which went right for Ricky Ponting was winning the toss. But, in hindsight, he would dearly have wanted to lose it. Punter’s decision to bowl first on a batting beauty, keeping in mind the dew factor, backfired and that too in a big way. Australia did manage to strike early when Peter Siddle got Sachin Tendulkar to edge one behind the wickets. But what followed was a fascinating and expected counterattack by Virender Sehwag and Gambhir. The Aussies smelt blood when Sehwag fell for 40, going for one of his big hits and Yuvraj Singh’s promising knock was cut short by Ben Hilfenhaus’ excellent reflex catch. That however only turned out to be the beginning of a long struggle for the Australians.

Dhoni and Gambhir joined forces to decimate the already depleted Aussies. Runs flowed with ease on a pitch that figuratively read ‘bowlers’ graveyard’. Pace spearhead Brett Lee was sorely missed and in his absence even the others were less effective. Siddle was by far the best of the bowlers, pitching the ball more often in the block hole than the others. Conversely, Mitchell Johnson’s expensive figures looked slightly better only because of the couple of wickets he picked up in the last over. That too was thanks too some splendid glovework from Tim Paine. Nathan Hauritz kept things tight but went wicketless, while Shane Watson, whom Ponting reposed faith in despite him 20-run over in the last match, was smashed for plenty yet again.

Even so, nothing can be taken away from M S Dhoni, who paced his innings to perfection. Following the unfortunate run-out of Gambhir, he and Raina steadied the innings before going on an all-out attack in the slog overs. Dhoni brought up his hundred launching a six straight down the ground, off a struggling Johnson. At the other end, Raina kept swinging his bat at everything and, luckily for India, there were more hits than misses. Both were eventually dismissed in the final over, but by then India posted a colossal 354/7.

For Australia to get anywhere close, an outstanding start was needed. Praveen ensured it never came. His inswinging deliveries accounted for Paine and Ponting while Ishant sent back Waston with a rising delivery as the Aussies stumbled to 45/3 and the game was all but decided, barring a miracle. Michael Hussey and Cameron White put on a steadying partnership. However, it was far from enough. White fell to Harbhajan for 23 in an attempt to accelerate the scoring. Hussey went on to top score for his side with a patient 53, before he ended up becoming one of Jadeja’s three victims. The left-hander was beaten in flight by the left-arm spinner and clean bowled. Later, Shaun Marsh was stumped by a long distance and Adam Voges fell going for a slog to give Jadeja his best one-day return in his short international career.

It was a thoroughly comprehensive win for the home side and one that should set up the series nicely, with scores level and everything to play for.

They may have won the first ODI at Vadodara, but there is not a lot of good news coming out of the Australian camp on the eve of the second match, a day-night affair, at Nagpur. The Aussies will miss the services of speedster Brett Lee and all-rounder James Hopes. Lee developed a right elbow strain during the opening game and managed to send down only six overs while Hopes pulled a hamstring. There are also doubts over another all-rounder Mitchell Johnson’s participation, but, thankfully for the Aussies, he is still in contention and might end up taking the field at Nagpur.

In the meantime, New South Wales all-rounder Moises Henriques has been called up by the Australian team management as a standby. He will stay on with the team till the fourth match of the series after joining them on Thursday in Delhi. Post the fourth game at Mohali, a final decision would be made regarding whether Henriques will continue to be a part of the squad for the entire tournament or be relieved, depending on whether Hopes is fit.

The all-rounder recently featured in the inaugural Champions League T20, which New South Wales won. He was highly impressive in the tournament and garnered a lot of praise. Hence, the call up wasn’t all that surprising. Prior to that, Henriques also took part in the IPL, but that ended up being a rather disastrous venture, with his franchise – The Kolkata Knight Riders – finishing at the bottom of the table.

This is not the first time Henriques finds himself in such a situation. A similar thing happened during the series against minnows Bangladesh last year. He was also impressive during Australia A’s winter series against Pakistan A and has been on the fringes of selection since.

Coming back to Australia and injuries, the list only gets longer for the kangaroos. Lee, Hopes and Johnson have now joined Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, wicket-keeper batsman Brad Haddin and promising youngster Callum Ferguson, all of whom had to give this tour a skip due to various injury-related problems.

If cricket matches were played only on paper, India would win hands down at Nagpur. Australia will be depleted by the absence of Brett Lee and James Hopes, taken out of the equation by injuries, whereas India would be bolstered with Yuvraj Singh, in all probability, returning to action. However, that’s not how things work out on the cricket field. So even though India would consider themselves lucky to be taking on a depleted Aussie XI, they will still have to go out and perform to level the series at Nagpur. Moreover, the Indians have to pull their socks up in each and every department.

There are likely to be some definite changes in the home team. If Yuvraj comes in, it will be a straightforward decision to be bench one of the young guns – Virat Kohli or Ravindra Jadeja. There is a faint possibility that both might sit out if India decide to go in with the extra spinner in Amit Mishra, with Yuvraj as the part-time option. Apart from that, there shouldn’t be any modifications in the batting department. However, that doesn’t mean all’s well. The top and middle order needs to get its act together. They can be excused for the Vadodara failure considering it was the first game of the series, but cannot afford to repeat their mistakes at Nagpur.

Virender Sehwag looked ominous during his brief stay on Sunday and would be itching for a big score. Among the others, Sachin Tendulkar would be keen to find the middle of the bat after an unusually below-par performance whereas MS Dhoni must be keen to lead from the front. Opener Gautam Gambhir was the only one who lent some solidity to the Indian chase at Vadodara and the rest, including the ‘sometimes flattering, sometimes deceiving’ Suresh Raina, can learn a lesson from his batsmanship. Gambhir, himself, has to continue with his good work.

Bowling wise as well, Dhoni and co have plenty to ponder upon. After the pasting he took at Vadodara, Praveen Kumar’s confidence might well have taken a beating, his fighting knock with the willow notwithstanding. And so, it is a risk the Indians would not like to take in a crucial game. Munaf Patel will most likely be his replacement, but whether he will prove to be a suitable alternative remains to be seen. Ishant Sharma has found some rhythm no doubt, but needs to maintain the consistency over a period of time for him to be blindly trusted by the team management. Finally, the time has come for Harbhajan Singh to sit down with the team think-tank and discuss what role he has to play in the one-day side. Of late, he has been neither been totally attacking nor completely defensive in his tactics, but has been stuck somewhere in between, barring a few games, in which he managed to make an impression. That leaves India with only comeback man Ashish Nehra as the form bowler, a far from ideal situation.

For Australia, expect Ben Hilfenhaus and Shaun Marsh to get an opportunity in place of Lee and Hopes. That apart, they don’t have too many worries. All their batsmen got runs and bowlers crucial wickets. If anything, some improvement is needed in the death overs bowling as well as in the field. Also, they stumbled during the batting powerplay, but the same applies to India as well.

As it often happens in this part of the world, day-night games are affected heavily by dew. Hence, the team batting first will have to post a huge score if they want to beat the wet conditions in the field. One only hopes that the final result is decided on the basis on which team played better cricket and not external factors.

Though the margin of victory in the Vadodara ODI was a mere four runs, Australia were clearly the more dominant of the two sides, with India playing catch up for most part of the game. And the one major difference that cost India greatly was the lack of partnerships chasing a big total. While the experienced Aussie top and middle-order laid a solid foundation for their side, the Indian batting collapsed rather inexplicably on a decent batting surface.

If not for Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar, India would have ended up with a rather embarrassing total. Virender Sehwag looked in great nick, but as often said before he sometimes needs to be careful with his shot selection. His opening partner for the opening game, Sachin Tendulkar, had an off day and will have to strike form soon.

The pressure of captaincy seems to be getting to MS Dhoni. After yet another low score, he would be desperate to do well. Batting higher up the order and playing his natural game should be an option worth considering. Speaking of youngsters, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli have been playing some breezy cameos. However, in modern day cricket, you need to grow fast and 30s and 40s won’t be good enough for long. This applies more to Raina than Kohli, who is relatively new to the international arena.

The Indian batsmen, both young and old, can learn from the manner in which Australia constructed their innings. Despite losing Shane Watson early, Tim Paine and Ricky Ponting protected their wickets during the tough initial period, when the ball was doing things and accelerated once they got their eyes in. And even after they fell, Cameron White and Mike Hussey ensured the good work continued. White, in particular, must be credited for curbing his natural game until later in the innings. Hussey’s final flourish was fantabulous and took Australia to a total they would have been highly pleased with, even though they failed to touch 300.

The Aussies were better of the two outfits with the ball in hand as well. Only Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra saved the day for India. Praveen Kumar was lacklustre and Harbhajan Singh was less than half the bowler he was during the tri-series final in Sri Lanka. In stark contrast, Australia had most of their bowlers in form. Brett Lee provided the early breakthrough and also kept up the pressure on the batsmen.

Peter Siddle and Mitchell Johnson backed them up in the desired manner while Nathan Hauritz is getting more and more impressive with every game. It was just the one over from Watson and a few lapses in the field that had Australia huffing and puffing briefly. But then, were Australia briefly struggled, the Indians disappointment for an extended duration. Thus, it has to be said that the final outcome was a fair one.

Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar added a whirlwind 84 for the eighth wicket, but it wasn’t enough as India still fell short by four runs chasing Australia’s impressive 292/8 in the first ODI at Vadodara. If only the top and middle-order of India had put up some better resistance on a pitch that was not difficult to bat on, Praveen and Harbhajan’s effort would not have been in vain or, to be honest, it might not have been needed. Instead they floundered and ended up conceding the advantage to Australia.

Things started on a positive note when Virender Sehwag, in his peerless style, eased Brett Lee for consecutive boundaries from the first two balls of the innings. However, it was too brief to have any impact as the pacer had his revenge soon, having him caught behind for 13 of an away-going delivery. From there on, it was all downhill for India until the final flourish, with only Gautam Gambhir holding fort with a measured 68. Sachin Tendulkar, opening the innings, looked completely out of sync and air-drove a wide delivery from Shane Watson straight into the hands of Ponting at short-cover. Virat Kohli and skipper MS Dhoni contributed 30 and 34 respectively. However, they both fell when India needed them to carry on for much longer.

The turning point, though, ended up being the dismissal of the well-set Gambhir. The left-hander fell off the first ball of the batting Powerplay when Mitchell Johnson got one to swing enough to beat his defence and trap him in front of the stumps. After that, there was a procession of wickets, which was halted only by blitzkriegs from Praveen and Harbhajan. The duo gave India a realistic chance after they slammed 20 from the penultimate over of the innings bowled by Shane Watson, a number of them full tosses. Nine were needed from the final over, but unlike Watson the less experienced Peter Siddle kept his calm. He cleaned up Harbhajan one short of his 50 and ensured Australia took the crucial lead in the series.

Earlier in the day, steady contributions from a number of their batsmen and shoddy bowling and fielding from the opposition meant that Australia ended up posting a healthy total on board. Ashish Nehra did provide India the early breakthrough, sending back the in-from Watson lbw with one that beat him for pace and movement. But Australia recovered magnificently with all the next four batsmen producing half-centuries against an ineffective Indian attack, and Tim Paine consolidated and then attacked before Cameron White and Mike Hussey carried on the good work, the latter providing the final flourish. He and Johnson took 18 off the 49th over bowled by Praveen. This included an outrageous six by Hussey, which cleared the ground and had even the batsman raising his eyebrows in a ‘wow! how did I manage that’ moment.

Hussey fell for a magnificent 73 from 51, enough to earn him the man of the match. Ishant Sharma was the pick of the Indian bowlers, claiming 3/50 – two of them coming in the last over – while Nehra ended up with 2/58. The other two regular bowlers were highly disappointing though. Praveen went for 77 bowling his full quota and Harbhajan yet again failed to make an impact. Ravindra Jadeja was more impressive, sending back the well-set Ponting and even restricting the runs.

At the end of the day, however, Australia had enough firepower to overcome whatever resistance India put up and win the opening battle.

Starting Sunday, India and Australia will battle it out in what is expected to be yet another engrossing series. While the Tests between the two sides have produced more entertaining cricket in recent times, Australia would not be complaining too much as they have an excellent one-day record in India. They beat India 4-2 during the last one-day series between the two sides, which was held in 2007.

Australia had also clinched the one-day contests in 2003 (tri-series involving New Zealand) and 2001 (bilateral). More importantly, they go into the clash with a huge amount of confidence and good form behind their back. Post losing the prestigious Ashes, they trounced England 6-1 in the one-dayers that followed and defended their Champions Trophy crown without much trouble.

In the process, they also regained the numero uno ranking, which they had lost briefly India, on the other hand, have had a rather torrid run. They suffered a major setback, losing to Pakistan in their Champions Trophy game and were thus knocked out of the major tournament. Earlier in the year, they failed in the T20 World Cup as well, losing in the first round itself. In addition to that, none of the IPL teams, which feature players who will take part in this tournament, made it past the Super 8 stage in the Champions League T20. Of course there were series wins in West Indies and more recently Sri Lanka. However, they were rather hollow and only helped in hiding the deficiencies that existed in the Indian team.

That said, they are dangerous side at home, no matter who the opposition. And Australia are fully well aware of that. The fact that three big names of Indian cricket – Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and paceman Zaheer Khan – have returned from injury will be a major boost to the team. But it would be unfair to expect them to fire straightaway as some amount of rustiness is bound to creep in.
A lot will thus depend on the other big three of the team – Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and the skipper MS Dhoni himself. They will have to fire for India to do well in this tough contest as the bowling remains India’s weakness. As mentioned before, the comeback of Zaheer is a plus and while Ashish Nehra has been good on his return to the international scene, his consistency can only be measured over a longer period of time. Also, Harbhajan Singh needs to do some serious soul-searching to be return to his ‘Turbanator’ ways.

Following some eye-grabbing domestic performances Munaf Patel gets another opportunity to resurrect his international, while Sudeep Tyagi has a deserved chance to show that he is ready for big-time cricket. And with Yusuf Pathan being shown the door, Ravindra Jadeja can stake his claim to being the batting all-rounder in the side. India cannot afford to take too long to find the right combination though.

Conversely, Australia are looking strong in both the departments. After years of struggle, Shane Watson has finally emerged as the all-rounder which the selectors always searched for in him. He has been in sensational form with the bat, and considering his love affair with India courtesy IPL 1, Indian bowlers are likely to get some headaches. And after being out of the game for a reasonable amount of time, Brett Lee has only come back stronger and fitter. With Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson in form and youngsters like Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine and Peter Siddle having already proved their worth, Australia undoubtedly look the better of the two sides and India will have to exploit their potential to the hilt to put it beyond the number one team in the world.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting made an apt point at a press conference held prior to the start of the one-day series against India when he said that ‘seven games in a bilateral series are too many’. Even if we take away this one-day series, it can still be said that there has been an overdose of cricket in recent times. We first had IPL 2, which was immediately followed by the T20 World Cup, then the Champions Trophy and the Champions League T20. Three of these four tournaments were 20-20 versions of the game, so it was surprising that Ponting did not mention this aspect with reference to ‘too many’.

We all know where the money lies in the modern cricket. Even so, an excess of anything, no matter how successful it is, will only prove harmful in the longer run. The disappointing television ratings for the Champions League T20 is a case in point; a strong indicator that organizers of such tournaments should know where to draw the line. As it is, the 50-over version is under threat from a number of quarters, so why give it a chance to be criticized further by having such a long, drawn-out tournament.

Also it is clear that too much money is corrupting the game as well as players. We are now beginning to hear terms like freelancers in cricket too. The likes of Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram have sacrificed their Test careers to prolong their stay in the shorter format of the game. But are the players to be blamed for making the choice? Not really. It is the organizers and the various cricket boards who have come forward and made tournaments like IPL and Champions League a reality and opened up a new option for cricketers.

While there is no denying that they provide entertainment, the quantity of time it absorbs is just too huge for comfort. The players thus are being forced to make a choice between playing for their country and playing for a franchise. The injury-hit Oram was honest enough to admit that he was looking to secure his and his family’s future before he hangs his boots. And he has possibly set a precedent for other cricketers who are going through a similar dilemma.

Modern-day cricket has become like a daily TV soap, being played out day in and day out. Thus, there is a possible danger of it getting worn out over a period of time. Also, if players are seen more in ‘club’ teams as opposed to country colours, the patriotic factor will be lost over a period of time. And if the crowds begin to go away, the money too will automatically vanish. The thought might seem rather premature and audacious, but not the danger signals.