India Need to Pull Up their Socks against Australia

Sreelata YellamrazuOct 23 2009

by Sumit Srivastava

The Indian team for the first two ODIs has been named. Whether Rahul Dravid should have been in the side or not, that debate is still on. But with or without Dravid, India had to deal with quite a few problems in the last few months in most of their matches and starting a new session against the mighty Australians will certainly not be an easy task.

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The selected team has a few guys making their come backs like Munaf Patel, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and a new face in Sudeep Tyagi. The team looks quite solid on paper, after all any team that includes batsmen like Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Suresh Raina in their ranks can feel confident of posting or chasing down any total on the scoreboard.

The important and interesting question is that of the team composition. The playing eleven is certainly decided on the eve of the match or just before the toss. But if one gives a closer look at the selected team, one may get the normal playing eleven out of it.

With Sehwag back in the side and Sachin being sure as one opener, Gambhir has to make way for Sehwahg at the very top. Gambhir would be batting most probably at number 3 if the things go normally. Following him would be Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina making the top 6 of the batting line up.

The question which arises is whether India should have a seventh batsman in Virat Kohli or should they just go with an extra bowler like India did against the Australians in the ICC Champions Trophy match? That will depend upon the conditions as well on how confident Dhoni feels with six batsmen.

The role of Raina will be an interesting one as he has often been used as a floater by Dhoni, making him bat at various numbers including the all important number 3 too. He may again be used like this because it will certainly keep the Australians guessing about the Indian batting order.

One thing is for sure that a conventional or traditional approach is not going to pay handsomely for India against the Australians. Australians come hard at their opponents and if India want to match them then, they will have to be give a taste of their own medicine to the Australians. Australians love to play positive cricket right from the outset and India will have to do the same too.

In the recent past Dhoni has been criticised rightly for not playing his natural game and getting into his shell a bit too much at times. Since he has become captain of the side he has taken the role of an anchor rather than the destroyer he used to be a couple of years ago. This is exactly what Sachin had done when he was the captain, started batting in more of a defensive mode which caused the Sachin-led Indian side dearly. Dhoni should be back to his older self with fearless approach against Australia if he wants to lead from the front.

Another big difference between both the sides is the running between the wickets. The Indians are well known hitters of the cricket ball than runners while the Australians can do both with good effect. With some swift moving guys like Gambhir, Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli and Dhoni, the team should make sure that they run well between the wickets and keep the score board moving and put pressure on the Australian inner ring fielders and while fielding, with the same set of players, they will have to make sure that they save at least 20 runs in the field.

Bowling remains the main concern for Dhoni. Only Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh are the two bowlers who have their places fixed in the playing eleven; the rest of the bowlers have been a problem for Dhoni. If Yuvraj is not fit then perhaps Dhoni is likely to go in with five bowlers but if he is fit then it may prompt Dhoni to play with 4 bowlers only with Yuvraj, Sehwag, Raina sharing the fifth bowler’s slot.

Ishant Sharma will definitely play in the first game at least because of his impressive showing against the Australians in the past. And if performance in the recently concluded Challenger Trophy is any parameter to asses someone’s form then we can hope for a better show by Ishant this time around. The choice is going to be among Munaf, Praveen Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi for the third pace bowling slot in which Munaf may win because of him being just the kind of a bowler like Dhoni wants.

Because of playing on the Indian pitches and also Australians being not known for playing spinners well, another option for Dhoni can be to play with both Amit Mishra and Bhajji because Mishra troubled the Australians quite a lot in the last year’s test series and also he bowled really well in ICC Champions Trophy match against the Australians. Still, because both the games being day –night ventures there are bound to be loads of ifs and buts with the final playing eleven.

Whenever India have given a tough fight to the Aussies, the one common factor has been their positive, aggressive and fearless approach. This approach should certainly be there this time too with keeping all the basics of the game right. Team looks solid on papers, this is the time for them to deliver and show the world that they really mean business.

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