Thursday, September 23, 2004

The Australian tour of India

There is an interesting change I have observed about the typical Indian cricket fan. He is generally extremely pessimistic about India's chances against the likes of Australia and South Africa, even in home series'. But nowadays, when it comes to test encounters against Australia, inarguably the most dominant champions since Clive Loyds worldbeaters, there is a surprising swagger in the stride of the fan. He seems confident that the world champions will once again bow to the Indian might at home. Australia has repeatedly failed to win any series in India for the last 35 years. Even after the resurgence of Australian cricket under Mark Taylor, they have continued to fail in India.
Going plainly by gut feel, I think that this is going to be the historical series, when Australia conquers their last frontier. They came close last time round under Steve Waugh, when they led 1-0 in the series, and had the Indians on the mat in the first half of the second test. Just as people started predicting a 3-0 whitewash, Rahul Dravid and VVS led an amazing fightback to reverse the direction of the series. The series was won, but it took awe inspiring performances from Harbhajan and VVS to put down the Aussies. I just wonder whether we can expect miracles to happen everytime.

On a purely objective evaluation though, I find that this Indian team is actually a much superior bowling side to the one in 2001. We have much better bowling teeth this time round with Irfan, Zaheer, Nehra, Balaji and Agarkar giving Saurav plenty of wicket taking options. Particularly Irfan seems to be a cut above the rest of the Indian bowlers. If you compare a young Srinath or a young Zaheer to the current Irfan, he is clearly far ahead of them in terms of both talent and discipline.
Also, Anil Kumble, who was absent last time, is back in action and bowling well. Harbhajan has returned from his injury, and if his bowling in the ODIs is anything to go by, he is in divine bowling form.
The only worry may be in the batting department. But if we look back to our recent performances in tests, the batting has been nothing short of superb. It only remains to be seen if the batsmen let the recent one day reverses affect their confidence.
All in all, it is going to be one helluva contest and a great time for cricket buffs like me.