First two days - Cynical view

By Thaleel Bhai
October 7 2004

Thaleel Bhai presents his views on the first two days of first test match between India and Australia, in which the latter has outclassed the former in every department.

Indian Side

• Every season, it's the same predicament but involving different people. Last October, it was between the like of Chopra, Sehwag and Ramesh. The season before, Sehwag, Ramesh, Das and Dasgupta.

  And now the opening combination selection is between Sehwag, Chopra and Yuvraj - and none of those might be possible combinations for this season, judging by form and recent performance. Chopra can't go leaving balls when it's seaming from off to leg, or outside off to middle - and Yuvraj can't try and be his antithesis, chasing the ball no matter where it is until he eventually edges it. Out of those three, only Sehwag's looked the part with his time at the crease - and rather than playing a stupid shot, got out to a fantastic piece of fielding. With the dismissals of both Chopra and Yuvraj, Ganguly'll need to have part of his mind considering potential candidates for the opening slot. Gautam Gambhir, SS Das, Vinayak Mane and company have done well on the Ranji circuit or on recent India A tours - maybe if the current candidates keep playing like this, we may well need to see a head or two rolling and someone called up to the big leagues.

• Back to Sehwag's dismissal - perhaps it was that which set the sides apart. One half chance was offered, and Langer dove and caught it cleanly. When Katich edged to Parthiv earlier, he wasn't caught cleanly - something that kept us from getting a wicket at a time when we could have again put some real pressure on Australia. Even outside of catching, the fielding was second-rate. There were a number of opportunities for run outs with the way Clarke initially ran between the wickets, in one day mode. Yet the ball wasn't picked up cleanly at times, at other times singles were given through misfields, or the throws that came in were either flying in at the middle of the pitch or the keeper's head.

• And now to the keeper. Unless Parthiv can grind it out tomorrow morning and get a vital half century (and then some), he'll have a struggle as far as his place in the side is concerned. As a keeper, he's been under a lot of criticism in the last few tours, with mercurial performances in Australia and Pakistan - and after being given such an extended run in the side, a call needs to be made. Players cannot be dropped when they have the caliber to turn a 50 into 150, or a single figure score into 100 - and either a new specialist keeper might need to be called up (Dhoni? Karthik?), or Parthiv will seriously need to improve his performance on both sides of the stumps.

• So far I've torn apart the batting, fielding and wicketkeeping... meaning that just the bowling's left. Unless the Aussies have already renamed it pie-throwing. Which, at least as far as Zaheer Khan is concerned, isn't too far from the truth. Agarkar's been criticized as a test player with comments that he doesn't perform at times, and can often get hammered all over the place... but he still poses a threat to batsmen, and if one bowler is choking runs at one end, he can often pick up a few wickets at the other, rather than bowl 2 feet outside off and hope for a flirt and a resulting edge. And against Australia, he's developed a knack of troubling the left handers with his swing by bringing it back into them. Khan's only achievement so far in the match has been making it through five sessions of play without any serious injury.

• On a more positive note, Harbhajan's picked up five wickets. He's looked inconsistent, which isn't surprising - considering that he's only played a handful of first class cricket recently - but even then, a five-for for any returning bowler is a major confidence boost. Aside from the consistently impressive Pathan, India's bowling looked as if it would be hard-pressed to bowl out Geoff Boycott's mum - but hopefully if Bhajji can take the confidence from a five wicket haul into the next few games, we might see him raise the side's bowling level.

The Australian side

• What is it with Damien Martyn and India? If you're an Indian fan, you'll at least hope that when Ponting returns, Martyn doesn't go mixing drinks - as he's one man whose not been too much of a worry for Indian bowlers. In the last nine innings against India, he's passed 50 a grand total of once - often making those elegant 30's and 40's - and then promptly getting out. Either way, the bowlers won't worry as far as he's concerned - they'll just keep sweating about the other six in the lineup.

  Martyn's last 9 innings:
  Brisbane test: 42 & 66 not out
  Adelaide test: 30 & 38
  Melbourne test: 31
  Sydney test: 7 and 40
  Bangalore test, in progress: 3

• If you're a truly optimistic Indian fan... either you'll be muttering "Kolkata" and "Adelaide" to yourself - or you'll just ignore everything on the scorecard except this.

  Shane Warne: 14-1-46-1

  Yes, one of his many old rivals from the vaunted Indian lineup - but even then, to get Laxman bowled isn't a big thing - it's far too common. In his 20 most recent test matches, he's been bowled 17 times - yes, seventeen - and just because Warne slipped one past the edge and into off isn't a cause for celebration - even though he joins a list of bowlers to have bowled VVS recently in tests - true caliber here... Franklyn Rose, Cameron Cuffy, Mervyn Dillon, Umar Gul, Nathan Astle (how did he ever get through that watertight defense of VVS'?). But we're not criticizing India anymore - I already did enough of that - so back onto Warne.

  Bowling at about 10 kmh faster so far hasn't worked too well for him, although it might be too early to tell. The rank long hop, that rarity of vintage Warne (or even the one we saw in Sri Lanka) has been far too common - and had it not been for the precarious positions India were in, Warne might have been treated with some genuine disdain. Instead, he was given a fair bit of respect - there was no Sehwag, VVS or Ganguly dancing down the track to hammer him down the ground or through midwicket - and even then, he was going at almost 3.5 an over, with just one wicket to show. The top batsmen will be good enough to adjust to Warne's slightly increased pace - VVS continued to pull, cut and whip him through midwicket as if this was the Eden Gardens track he was batting on, and neither Ganguly or Sehwag seemed to be bothered at all by Warne - and if he's bowling in the same manner on possibly a better batting track at Nagpur or Mumbai, with Tendulkar in the lineup and the batting clicking - he might spend more time looking at the boundary ropes than at the wicket opposite him. Still, Ponting, Gilly and Buchanan shouldn't bother too much - he can at least bring down his horrible average in India tomorrow against the tail - that is if McGrath and Kasper don't demand the ball by right, after their performances today.

• The big question as far as Test #3 is concerned. Punter's returning - so just who'll make sure he's accomodated in the XI? On performance at the moment, it's got to be either Lehmann (for reasons below) or Martyn - (for reasons above) but both are tough calls, considering the way that they both were among the runs back in Sri Lanka. Lehmann so far has played atrociously; the sort of innings that could have been subtitled 'Kamikaze' or 'Banzai' - and not one you want a top order batsman to play against Indian spinners at home.

  The final overs of Australia's innings showed at least one point - when given an opportunity, they can grab it and rip out a few wickets when needed to. This time, it was only Warne, Gillespie, Kasper and McGrath - but next time, a similar harakiri shot could see the likes of Lehmann, Clarke and Gilchrist put under severe pressure - and possibly sent back to the pavilion if Bhajji or Kumble start getting back into their rhythms soon.

  On the topic of the expendable top order batsman, while one of the newcomers would be the easy way out, Katich has been too consistent of late and especially on flatter, subcontinental-type wickets (125 and 77 not out at Sydney, 86 and 14 on Colombo's SSC, and then 81 in Bangalore) he's looked more at home than he might sometimes on a WACA pitch. And Clarke, of course, cannot be dropped right away - it'd bring too much of a smile to Anil Kumble's face after the way Jumbo got mauled. 6, 4, 4 in consecutive balls - and this too, in front of his home crowd. After seeing plenty of instances where Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam or Saeed Anwar took apart the Indian bowling - I'd have to say that not even one of their more destructive onslaughts could have topped the way Clarke treated Kumble.

• And of course, the big picture - but only as far as this test's concerned (how many different contradictions can you find in that one sentence?) If India can double their score from here, it'll officially be classified as a miracle. Even our reaching the follow on mark should attract some truly long odds now. And with the way the pitch is behaving, Kolkata needs to be forgotten. Lightning may have struck twice as far as the Dravid-Laxman combo goes - but it's not a reason for Australia to bat again. India's top order have had a miserable day - and putting them back in tomorrow, before they can have some time in nets and the drawing board would be the best (and only) way to take maximum advantage. Nevermind the 'batting last' possibility. Australia should be thinking in Waugh mode - bat only once - and with the way most of the top order are playing, I'd be surprised if India forced a fourth innings here.

  The other worry is the degree of reverse swing that Kasprowicz and McGrath were getting in the last session. If those two can do that - what about Pathan, who already showed that he can make an old ball talk at Sydney? India's best chance of coming back in the game is making the deficit as small as possible (below 200 is a long shot, but if Pathan/Parthiv really apply themselves, and we get some contributions from Kumble and Khan, it's a possibility) - and then tearing through the Australian lineup for whom the prospect of facing Pathan and a reverse swinging ball on day 3 might be far removed from facing him on day 1, when the pitch was at its most pleasant.

  But even then, Australia should pretty much have the match in the bag - to the point that they may as well make plans to see some of Bangalore on day 5. Unless we get a near miracle from Pathan (who has come up with minor ones every now and then - remember his first spell in the Champions trophy against Pakistan, or the yorker at Sydney?) or another Kolkata-esque performance (unlikelier, with the collective batting form at the moment), we Indians look to be headed for a hammering.