BCCI isnt serious about the Test defeats

If you have a look at Mr Srini, the BCCI chief, comments then you’d probably bite your own head or hit it on the wall bang bang. That gives you how much seriously the board has taken the disasters of England and Australia.  Yes, India are not the bad team, as the results show in this 2 tours, but there is something that needs to be fixed. Either that’s the mindset that’s suddenly deteriorated or it’s the quality that’s gone begging.  Or it’s the coach regime that’s plotted the downfall more than anything else.

The media has been equally negative, and so have been the ex-players like Bapu Nadkarni or Kirti Azad or even Kiran More. This players were no good in their playing days, played negative all their careers and today they are echoing the thought that Tendulkar should retire. So much for 22 years of international cricket the man played for India.

The headlines in ToI or NDTV say “Another green pitch awaits India”. Cricinfo reads “dry pitch could help under the pump Indian batting lineup”. Who’s more reliable?  Perhaps cricinfo.  The media hasn’t played less role than the ex-players in forming a negative opinion against the beleaguered cricketers who are being hammered down under.  The next venue is Adelaide, where India hasn’t lost in last 2 series, or rather last 13 years. So much for the historic facts.

The board is busy in arranging logistics  for the IPL-5 and Srikanth’s Tamil Nadu are in Ranji final after hammering Mumbai in the semis. But the defending champions are edging them out of the tournament race by being ultra-slow in their batting. 2/404 in 180 overs is heinous.  But if Tamil Nadu wins the trophy, again the likes of Boss DK, Vijay, Mukund, Dabrinath and L Balaji would find their way to the Indian team on the name of fresh blood and injury replacements. But if Rajasthan win again, then there won’t be any players from Rajasthan finding their way to the Indian team.  Zimply because Srikanth is head of selection committee, which has been unaccountable for the 7 defeats overseas.

Whose heads is going to roll after the test leg of this tour is completed?  The ODIs are expected to be little bit more successful than the tests cos the team is world champion in this format. And it has won the previously held tri-series in that country with exact same combination of teams participating then and now.   MS Dhoni might find his aura back after ODI success (read few wins, if not tournament), the selection committee would then hold its head high “See, we selected this team”. Certainly it wont be the case of “Oh, we also selected the teams that lost 4-0 (or 3-1 or 3-0) in both England or Australia. “ And as Bishen Bedi perhaps for first time said something right in ages “Every test team would be forgotten once IPL starts”. But if there wont be any viewership for IPL, then where would the unaccounted for selection committee head and officials who have hefty share in IPL franchisees find rest in? 

N Srinivasan and Kris Srikanth are the 2 biggest culprits to have landed the Indian cricket in such a pitiful state.   They probably take more solace in the fact that they are part of the team that has won past 2 IPLs and one CLT20. But they fail to understand they also hold the biggest posts in the board that manages the national cricket team. The statements from this 2 buffoons is good enough to reveal the fool hardiness with which this folks have taken the defeats.

The road ahead

With great disappointment and disgust here is my take on the reasons why India lost so miserably in the 3 test matches so far.

Opening Pair is silent

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are best bet when it comes to open the innings in any format for India. This pair has been excellent in Test matches across all conditions barring Australia. This was an acid test for the duo and they have failed miserably in this tour. Not technically for Sehwag, because he doesn’t have much of it, but in mental thought process. Something which is surprising given his exploits in Australia over past 2 tours. Gambhir was expected to have come full circle on this tour, but he has failed to live upto those expectations.  Sehwag and Gambhir haven’t fired together or in solo attempt, which makes the task of ageing middle order a bit tough, something which has happened consistently in this tour. Barring the first innings in MCG, Sehwag hasn’t fired. Gambhir has showed some fight in last 3 innings, but that doesn’t redeem of 3 aghast failures in first 3 innings on this tour.

The reason why India was so successful in 2003-04 in Australia was the start Sehwag and Chopra provided. Chopra didn’t make more than 48 in any innings, but he played out the dangerous span of 15-20 overs from Gillespie, Brad Williams and company.  That Australian team was far superior to the one which beat India blue on this tour.

Sehwag and Gambhir are the best bet to continue opening for India in long run, since they are not supposed to tour for another year or so outside subcontinent, they would need to find their mojo back very soon. The replacements for them, the TN implants don’t look promising either.

Ageing Middle Order

When your middle order is past the prime, the usability date, such failures are long due. And sadly India did not learn through the mistakes of England tour.  No one expected India to lose 0-4 in England and so badly in Australia. Perhaps this was the best chance for India to beat Australia first time in Australia. Instead they ran to their worst defeat in Australia in 13 years.  Dravid,Tendulkar and Laxman are ageing stalwarts and they look no good to extend their career beyond this tour. Tendulkar has been under severe pressure for that elusive 100th century from the media and perhaps that has got to him. As a result the team has suffered. He has been the best batsman on this tour and every time he has walked on the crease, he has looked assured in the start only to grow nervous in the end of the innings. He is going to be 39 in April and perhaps he is the only man who looks to play a few more series at home before he calls it a day.

Dravid has been in superb form in 2011 with 5 hundreds and topping the run charts, but he has been back to 1999 form on this tour. Worst, his defence has been breached. He finds unique ways to get bowled and that is a sign for you to go.  Its time for the fans and selectors to say thank you to the great man and move on. It’s a disgrace for fans, his loyal fans over the years to see him get bowled, given the fact he has been THE WALL and one of the most complete Test batsmen of the history, something very rare this era.  He has made few runs, but they are not enough and they are not the premium that would extend his golden career beyond this tour.   He has to sign off post Adelaide and since he is already 39, he would be remembered to have retired still at top (little lower than that though).

Laxman has to be dropped from the team after the Perth test. He was expected to make runs against his favorite opposition, but he has struggled miserably. Silken Hyderabadi should read the writing on the wall and should announce his retirement immediately. He hasn’t been dropped in ages and if he is dropped for Adelaide, then it would be a blot on his career. Again, a time to say thank you to Laxman for his contribution to the Indian Test arena in past 16 years.

Until England tour, we believed that the golden generation of Indian cricket has turned around the way it plays cricket in away series, but last 2 tours have diminished that notion, that belief which was installed by this very men in 2000s under the lion hearted Sourav Ganguly.  It would now take perhaps another decade or so (less the better) to turn around from this moment of darkness in Test arena.

Defensive Captaincy

MS Dhoni, the ODI captain and MS Dhoni, the Test captain.  Two different personalities, split personalities may be.  MS Dhoni in limited overs is a different batsmen and captain altogether than what he is in Tests. The morning of MCG test, day 4 was the turn around for Indian team which pushed the team to the darkness it find itself in. And the culprit has to be Dhoni himself. Spreading out the field to 10 and 11 is aghast. When you have the last pair of an insecure batting lineup on the crease, you’d rather look for wiping out the tail and have less target to chase than what was actually. But those visuals implant a permanent memory in Indian fans that the captaincy from the world cup winning captain was insipid and timid. The timid captaincy in England and Australia have cost 7 tests on the trot.

Way ahead

The winds of change have to start blowing and the replacements for Dravid and Laxman have to be handy.  Kohli has promised a lot and he should be persisted despite uneven scores in Australia. He is a prodigy and he has to be preserved from the evils of IPL to ensure he is transformed to a complete international batsman in all formats of game.   There is a lot of young talent coming through. Rohit Sharma is certain to debut sooner than later and along side Suresh Raina, provided he cures his short ball weakness, the middle order for Indian Test team should be good, if not as formidable as in 2000s at least for few seasons. It took a few years for the likes of Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly to blossom into the batsmen they were. And similar chances have to be provided to the next generation of Indian cricket.  The good news is there is a lot of young talent that is shining. Ajinkya Rahane,  Cheteshwar Pujara, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Menaria,  Manish Pandey etc are few very good prospects in the pipeline that should find their spots in the Indian team very soon. It’s the dawn of the new era in Indian cricket and it has to be ensured the evil clutches of easy money of IPL doesn’t hamper the transition from golden batting to the new gen batting.

The IPL has to be toned down and one more moderate or flop viewership would ensure that this monster is grounded, if not buried totally.

The ODI team looks well set and the transition from the oldies to the new gen was almost smooth. Sure, there were few hiccups in between, but the victories came more than defeats and the ODIs ahead do look promising and they evoke some kind of hope after the doom of the tests.

May be a different captain for ODIs and Tests could be a theme to follow just like 2007-08 or what South Africa follows, or England follows (they go to a maddening extreme with one captain per format).  MS Dhoni has looked clueless in Tests in batting and captaincy. May be the one test ban might serve as a deterrent for him and he could arrest the slide.  He looks top notch in ODIs, but he has to catch up on the Test front. And if he is making way for another captain, then may be somebody young as Virat Kohli could be an option, but that would be too soon for him for now. Once he finds his mojo in Tests too, he wont make a bad captain. And the need of the hour for India’s test team is to play aggressive cricket, something they did over past 2 tours in Australia.  And they need an aggressive captain for that.

Coaching regime

The coaching regime has to undergo a change and 7 tests is good enough to judge the resume of Duncan Fletcher. To me, he seems the biggest culprit for the disasters.   Something which Gary Kirsten did in 2 years, it didn’t take even a year for Fletcher to demolish all the good work done by Kirsten and of course John Wright. So for sure he needs to be shown the door.  5-0 for England in 2006-07 laid the foundation for their success running into 2011 and similar whitewash for India (England and probable Australian) should lead to a change in coaching regime and a new coach has to be found out.  May be likes of Wasim Akram could be a good option to start with for the bowling department and hire somebody for batting too, as the transition begins. Something which Justin Langer does for Australia.

Duncan Fletcher has escaped the media attention and the buck has to stop at this man, the culprit to sow seeds of disaster by making the team negative and defensive.

The signs were visible in 3rd test in West Indies when India decided to close the shop with 86 runs to get in 15 overs and 7 wickets in hand. In modern T20 era, this is a cheap target and then even though Laxman, Dravid were at crease, the runs should have been gotten. For me that was the turning point when the team stopped belief. And the same set of batsmen performed credibly in South Africa, almost winning the series. And sooner, one tour later, the technique and attitude of the same batsmen were found deficient. Hard to believe. More to do with the external advice coming from the so called coaches.  India struggled to bowl out weaker Windies team in Windies in 2nd and 3rd test and as a result 3-0 became 1-0 and then the famous cold act of R Ashvin which ensured India let go of whitewashing a team again in the return tour.

And not to cite the numerous occasions, which were encountered in England where some defensive and inexplicable tactics led to a 0-4 rout.

Hard decisions bestow,  some culling to follow and probably more than anything else, the mental belief and attitude of winning and aggression needs to return for the remainder of the tour and the next series India plays at home against England and then Australia should dawn the new age and a scoreline of 3-0 and 4-0 should be aimed at least in home.

In hope of a comeback

The prospects of 4-0 on Australian tour are bright and perhaps that is a sad story for Indian cricket. At this point of time, it seems that this team under MS Dhoni has basically undone all the hard work taken under Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble. Whats more saddening fact is that the culprits are the same stalwarts of the past. The same heroes who scripted epic innings in past 2 tours have been the culprits in the 2 tests now.  VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. When this 3 names come into the mind, the innings of 167, 178, 270, 195, 151, 93* on those golden test matches of the past 3 series come into picture. And when you see this heroes struggle on this tour to a substandard Australian team which is nowhere near to the mighty teams of 1999 or 2003-04 or even 2007-08, it pinches you even more.

Sydney has now come to be associated with painful bunch of memories for an average Indian cricket fan.

Sydney 2008 and Sydney 2012.

Two extremes. The former reminds us of ugly incidents on the field and the remarkable statesmanship displayed by then captain Anil Kumble who gave the memorable statement “Only one team was playing with the spirits of the game”. And the latter, reminds of the meek struggle India showed on day 1 of the first test match of 2012. Much contrast even if you roll back an year to Capetown, which India almost won in South Africa.

In 2008, the monkeygate propelled India to a famous win in Perth and this time it’s the talks of another 4-0 rout that could possibly propel India to a magical turnaround.

The worst feeling associated with this losses is the fact that you know your team isn’t that bad, it is made out to look from the media of both countries. The failing stars are the same people who have scripted infinite comebacks and have changed the perception of Indian cricket worldwide in past decade.  When you know your team isn’t that bad, then its causing you even more agony and pain. So much so that you want to switch off totally from cricket. For  me its been a total off thing. I deleted all apps from my gadgets which read “CRICKET”, turned off all those sites which reminded me of the painful defeats in MCG and SCG.

The MCG test was in the hands till day 4 morning when some strange defensive tactics from MS Dhoni gifted the momentum to Australia and they are too good to let it slip from their grabs.

India needs to do a few things different from what they have been doing in this 2 test matches and most of those things are in the mental thought process. The Indians are too experienced to not let the turnaround come into their mind.  Defensive attitude has to be buried and the days of Dadagiri have to be remembered.  Sourav Ganguly’s presence is the most critical thing that’s needed now and nobody other than the legend himself can do a pep talk kinda thing to the boys and then the results would be up for everybody to see.

He himself has said “Get rid of the cobwebs and play fearless cricket”. That had been the mantra behind those memorable victories India has secured in past 12 years or so. The time has come to relive that attitude and get rid of any defensive crap Duncan Fletcher might be bringing from his English experience. Also it’s a time to rethink to have Fletcher as coach. Is he really worthy and is he really bringing any value to the table?

May be a change in the bowling department could do wonders. Getting rid of Ashvin who has been ineffective should be replaced by Pragyan Ojha.   0/157 is a stark reminder to him that Test cricket is not always fairytale and his honeymoon period is over.

And for a change try batting 2nd on a wicket if you win the toss. Let the opposition bat first who are also suspect against quality fast bowling and India does have quality in that. When Australia came out to bat on day 2 and 3 of Sydney test, the pitch was totally flat and had India batted on those days, they would have scored the same runs as Australia did. The batsmen did show some glimpse of return to form in 2nd innings and that should be the founding stone for the possible comeback.

Its time to rally behind the team, not disown it.

And I am going to watch the Test match on willow.tv through You Tube hopefully awaiting that magical moment that could script a remarkable comeback from the cornered tigers.

SL !!!!

13 for 6 to 24 for 7 and now 35 for 8.

That looks like a pitiful score SL used to heap on the minnows in the haydays of Vaas and Murali. Poor them, they are undergoing the same hammering now.

Wonderful.

Cant stop laughing out loud.

Go bundle them out below 54. Revenge would then be extracted for that pathetic Sharjah night 12 years back.

Where are those talks of character and stuff now ?

PS : I logged onto cricinfo after 2 weeks reading out a superb jab on SL cricketer names on FakingNews.

SCG Test dos and donts for India

Glenn McGrath really sucks. 

A look at his famous habit of predictions suggest that he has been failing miserably in past 2 years. He predicted 5-0 whitewashes for England twice in 2009 and then in 2010-11. 

Both times Aussies lost the series. 

He has predicted 2 things for this series:

1. India would lose 4-0

2. Tendulkar wont score 100th ton in SCG this time.

The onus is now on the Indians  to prove this predictions wrong. The time has come up for the famed batting order to step up and deliver. They havent crossed 300 once in last 5 away tests and if they dont do it this time the chance of squaring test series is lost. 

This part of world, you got to score runs. And India has capable batsmen of doing it.  The time has come to the glorious batsmen to fire and prove the critics wrong. 

The bowling isnt a weak link, but the batting is.  India has capable bowlers who would run through the opposite batting lineup, but its the batsmen who are unable to put up fighting totals.  2 of 6 have to bat long and long. Score runs as they did in 2003-04.

And yes MS Dhoni needs to shut up and find ways to wipe out the tail. This habit is now sucking and leading to a habit of losing Tests from winning positions. From position, India was on day 2 in MCG, there was no business losing the test.

He has to deliver through bat and through captaincy -- aggressive at that.

If India does most of the above things right and the weather is right, then we are going to have a favorable result.

MCG defeat dissection

So the away woes continue. 5th straight loss. 5th straight batting failure in a test match. None would have expected a team at 3/214 chasing 333 in first innings on day 2 close to lose the test match day and half later.  But India always exceeds expectations. They lose when none expects them to and they win when none expects them to. This has been a close knit team for almost a decade. The batting names have remained same more or less same. The spots 1, 3, 4, 5 have been fixed for 10 years now barring injuries and other reasons, but  they were undone by some quality pace bowling by inexperienced Australian fast bowlers. The attitude of the Indian players on day 4 throughout was questionable. The players seem resigned, the shoulders were dropped, the field was open and spread out to a no 9 and 11. Cmon, you don’t expect to give easy singles to tail enders. No sign of attack, no sign of keeping up pressure on the tailenders was visible from the world cup winning, IPL winning captain MS Dhoni.

He has to own up this defeat. His captaincy on 4th morning was the worst, worse than Shahid Afridi or even a Dilshan (who won a test in SA).

He didn’t attack the jack and 10, he allowed easy singles and allowed the target to cross 250 when it was no business chasing more than 240 at the max.   Perhaps the time has come now to see that the ageing legends quit and allow the fresh blood to sneak in. And the culling must start through VVS Laxman. He is supposed to be 4th innings champion, but yesterday he was abject. Scores of 2 and 1 are too bad for a player like him when he is taking on his favorite team. Hell with the history and ground stats for him. Why did not he take up the responsibility to guide the chase.

And same questions need to be asked to Virender Sehwag, why did he cut the ball when the trap was laid out for him through some imaginative captaincy from Clark.  He just gifted his wicket away to the Aussies and that moment, the victory for them was sealed. Losing to an under rated team is frustrating, if this loss came in 2003 or 2007 then we would have been able to digest this, but hell the Australian team in transition with no big name firing has defeated a stalwart studded team. The lineup where top 5 has plateful of runs, but cannot stitch partnerships together to win a damn test match, they had no business losing.

Gambhir has been successful in almost all conditions, but he has failed in England and now that’s carrying in Australia too. He has been a dogged character, not the one easily to give up. He has seen the frustration of being dropped and had even thought of giving up the game at one point, then why is he not so considerate enough to play a dirty innings to get some runs. Don’t poke outside off stump, this is a test match, not a T20 and you are not captaining KKR, but opening for India in a country where they are yet to win a test series in 64 years.  Scorelines of 2 and 13 don’t do justice to this man and his temperament.

Ditto 68 and 7 don’t work well for Sehwag.  He has been successful in MCG before and very famously.  195 on day 1 of that test match in 2003 was a glorious innings and now both the men from Delhi would go in 2012 with no Test centuries to their name. They are not able to provide the fiery starts they are famous to provide.   They have to own up and start producing runs freely. And that’s very critical for Indian batting to click. That gives the likes of Dravid and Laxman – the slow workhorses time to play their own game. 

Kohli has been a failure here, but again early days for him. First major away tour for him and he should be given another chance in the Sydney Test.

MS Dhoni has to look up to his Test batting, he has been falling too frequently to soft dismissals and low scores. Yesterday he scored just 23, but he leaked far too many runs in the morning session.  It would have been nice if he would have shown the captaincy skills he has been famed for past 4 years.  If you leak runs through unimaginative captaincy to the tail enders, then at least exceed that amount by scoring runs, when you are a batsman of capability and over  8500 international runs, then some responsibility has to lie on your shoulders too.

IPL Ashvin, who has replaced Harbhajan Singh should first learn how to bowl in a test match and moreso to a tailender in a situation when its do or die. He came on pretty late in the attack yesterday, but he just bowled ordinarily with no attempt to grab the wicket. Happy containing? Not that either. He leaked 9 runs in one of his overs with short dolleys and poor bowling. Even when he batted in first innings, he continued giving strike to no 11 on 2nd or 3rd bowl of the over of firing Hilfenhaus or Pattinson. What was the motive ?  The aim was to cut short the lead as much as possible, good that Yadav did not fall and showed decent character to block out the balls. But this is something IPL Ashvin will have to learn. May be a quick word or 2 with Anil Kumble would be good on how to bowl Yorkers to tail enders.  He is the attacking spinner in Tests after having replaced out of form Bhajji, but if continues to play the same role as Bhajji did, then let Pragyan Ojha come in.

Throw this lad out of the team if he continues to make elementary mistakes.

All is still not lost. Before its too late work on the mindset first. Come out all attacking, take 20 wickets as soon as you can. Australian batting is fragile and prone to collapse any time. 4/27 to 240 was an unforgivable crime. And it shouldn’t be repeated.

Don’t leak too many runs to the tailenders and block runs. Play SL brand of cricket if possible to dry out the runs.  Set 7-2 field like you did in Nagpur 2008. Who has stopped you?  And have batsmen take up some responsibility.

New year, new test match, hopefully new mindset. All is not lost yet. But if they don’t improve in Sydney, then all would be lost and the legends would not like to sign off with a defeat in the test series, but with a  series win. How much hungry the legends are, that remains to be seen.

292 to win

What an insipid captaincy by 2 times world cup winner MS Dhoni. He just let the tailenders score easy runs through indifferent field settings when 9 down. Last 2 wickets scoring 75 runs with Pattinson getting 32 not out. The fields were spread out, there was no aggression, there were no attempts made to grab those 2 wickets. There were very less yorkers, the captain had lost it. 

Not a very good sign when you are looking to win the first test match of an away tour. Something which has been the Achilles heel in the past and is haunting now too.  Not a good sign when you want to regain the lost no 1 ranking.

Ashvin was the culprit, MS was bigger one and the biggest the fielders who let easy runs, allowed 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and even the tail enders ran 4 runs. 

Attribute it to MS Dhoni's questionable tactics.

292 to win. 

Key players : all batsmen.

For morning session it seemed the Australian team has got 2 captains --MSD and Michael Clarke.  Thanks to Laxman who sent back Hilfenhaus to end the innings.

MCG Test day 3 updates

The Boxing day Test in MCG is at a very interesting stage with the result very likely on day 4 itself. The key lies to the time India spends to take remaining 2 wickets of Australian 2nd innings. Anything over 250 would be a tough proposition given the up and down pitch. Michael Hussey needs to understand that any runs he adds to his overnight 79 would be a waste of time for his team and himself.

He is not anyways going to last beyond the end of this Indian summer, so why waste everyone's time. He and Ponting are now at the stage where one good innings would only delay the inevitable. The best bet for them is to just end the agony and walk into the oblivion.

Their legacy would be remembered as finest cricketers who excelled with great players around and struggled when their team needed them the most.  To see Ponting and Pussey struggle for that one career extending innings is a pain to watch, given the fact that this players were part of once formidable team that conquered the world.

India were equally inept in the batting in the 3rd morning when they could have batted Australia out of the test match with Kohli, Dhoni and Laxman yet to come and edgy, lucky Dravid still on crease. But then Hilfy had some other ideas as he took his first 5-for and redeemed his career after the Ashes low of last year.  Unless it was for valuable 31 runs from IPL Ashvin, the lead of 51 would have been lot more.

Umesh Yadav has been a revelation since the 2nd test match in Kolkata vs WI. It was heartening to see him go over 150 mark and grab 4 wickets in this innings taking his match total to 7. The other bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma were superb too.

All in all a very good looking pace attack from India and if the batsmen could get it right in the 4th innings and the remaining 2 wickets are drained quickly, the Indians should see themselves in a winning position. And its very crucial for Laxman and Gambhir to score runs. Laxman is playing on his worst Australian venue and the motivation for him should be the 4th innings chase, where he has been the best India batsmen to bat in recent past.

But as usual the pace would be setup by one and only Viru Sehwag, if he gets going and scores some quick runs, India should be on course. And Sachin Tendulkar would want to make his final innings in MCG a memorable one, as would Dravid want it to be. What better than winning on a ground which has been cruel and horrible for the country in past.

Australia memoirs : 1991-92

Time for some digging in the repository for the memories of tours down under. 

And first in this series is 1991-92 tour, the first one I saw live on TV back when i was 12.  The series which saw the arrival of Shane Warne and more than him, arrival of Tendulkar on world scene as a master class batsman. Also the departure of Ravi Shastri, Kris Shrikanth and Dilip Vengsarkar. 

Shastri played just one more test series after that tour, Srikanth ditto and Dilip Vengsarkar retired after this series at 35. He just managed 2 50s, 54 in each of those innings and he was out.

This was also the last tour of Kapil Dev abroad when he succeeded in grabbing wickets. 32(or 34) wickets in 5 tests and reaching 400 wickets milestone in Perth grabbing Mark Taylor was a highlight of the otherwise disappointing series for India. 

This was also the first series for Javagal Srinath, lean and tall fast bowler who would go on to become then 2nd successful fast bowler in India (now upstaged by Zaheer Khan in terms of Test wickets).  Subroto Banerjee was other debutant, but he fell out soon. In the ODIs, the triseries Benson & Hedges world series then, Sourav Ganguly debuted in 2 odd ODIs and then was dumped for 4 years. 

From Australian perspective it was a series of Craig McDermott and Bruce Reid. Indians had no answer to the pace and bounce from this Aussie pacers and the likes of Whiteny and Paul Reiffel who debuted in that series supported the likes of McDermott and Reid aptly. 

Those days, the ODIs were interspersed between the Tests unlike today's age when ODIs / Tests are played in clusters.  It was also the first slice of viewing to the Indian spectators where in they got up early morning 530 AM and watched out those games.  Hearing the likes of Bill Lawry, Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell was a delightful experience. Tony Greig was a good chap then, he hadnt fell in love with Sri Lankan jugglery those days. 

Getting up at 530 AM and watch out the first session of the Test matches before going out to school was a superb experience. That was also the first time Indians saw the high end technology in cricket (colored clothes in ODIs, stump cams and of course pointers used by commentators used for field placings etc). Sunil Gavaskar was the lone commentator from Indian side and of course he was starter in the commentary business then as it was India's first tour to Australia post Gavaskar and with Tendulkar.

Gavaskar is now 62 and Tendulkar is 38, but its hard to believe that there was just a gap of 2 years between former’s retirement and later’s initiation.

That tour lasted for 4 months and by the end of the tour, India had played out 5 Tests, a tri-series in which they won just 4 games and a world cup they exited first round with just 2 wins to credit.  The tests were spanned across 3 months, as opposed to just about a month this time.   India had played out a tie game against West Indies, who were not so weak those days as they are now. Probably it was their first Australian tour sans Vivian Richards who had retired few months earlier, but was still available for the World Cup. At least he thought so, but the selectors didn’t think like him.   That game in Perth, in which India were rolled over for 126 gave the world a bowler in Sachin Tendulkar, who bowled the final over of the game and taking the final wicket of West Indies, thus tying the game. In the wake of famous Hero cup last over against South Africa, this spell or this game for Tendulkar as a bowler is sort of diminished. 

Cant imagine the fact today that there was gap of 24 days between first test in Brisbane and Boxing day test in Melbourne and then again a gap of 20 days between SCG test and the Adelaide Test. India played out a total of 5 first class games amidst the test series, a kind of thing unimaginable in the modern era of IPL, BBL and CLT20.

India were rolled over in the first test in Brisbane by 10 wickets. Australian batting comprised of Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor as openers, Boon and Border at 3 and 4, Jones and M Waugh at 5 and 6. Healy at 7.  The bowling attack read  Big Merv, Mike Whiteny, Peter Taylor and of course Craig McDermott.

Indian batsmen had no answer to the pace, swing and bounce offered from the Australian fast bowlers who were stronger than the current lot.  Except for Sachin Tendulkar who scored classy hundreds in Perth (114) and Sydney (141), only Azhar (123) and Shastri scored 100s(he scored 206).  Srikanth, Manjrekar, Vengie and More were sheer failures.  Sachin's love for Aussies began on that tour which is ongoing till date and would continue till he retires.  

India lost heavily in 4 Tests in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The only places where Indians did show some fight was in Sydney, where they were denied victory due to a day being washed out in rain and then in Adelaide where they scored 400 odd in 4th innings, though they lost by 140 runs. They rolled over in Perth and lost the series 0-4.

After the tests were lost, the Indians showed some fight in the B&H world series by beating Australia once and West Indies twice, tying once and then reaching finals. Their show in the world cup was a disaster in the modern era.

Bowling wise, Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev were potent new ball pair, but lack of runs from batsmen crippled the experienced duo. Javagal Srinath emerged from this test series as fastest Indian bowler since Nissar Mohammed and the figures of 18 wickets in 4/ 5 tests proved this fact.

The small matter of the fact was that Shane Warne debuted in Sydney test and was taken up for runs by Tendulkar and Shastri. None expected what was to come from this blonde guy further down the years. He was promptly dropped for the next 2 Tests after returns of 1 for 150 and then he rocked the world starting Lanka tour later in 1992.

The love affair with viewing Australian cricket broadcast began then and is still ongoing.

Next : 1999 Series.

Preview to Boxing day Test

The Boxing Day Test at the MCG is 6 days away and the excitement is slowly building up. The Aussies are hosting a batting boot camp in order to weed out the weaknesses that have been exposed in past 2 years in different countries and against different countries. The Indians are worried about their 2 premier fast bowlers -- would they last the entire tour to give the team its first series win in Australia. So far that worry is a genuine one and the news breaking out of the Indian camp isn't a good one. Ishant Sharma is mysteriously injured and there are no updates on his injury status. He didn't bowl in the first 2 day game more than 5.3 overs and then didn't take the field till day. Not sure if he would be part of the playing XI in Melbourne.

Zaheer Khan was ineffective on day 2 of the tour game in Canberra and he didn't take the field after bowling 10 overs for 41 runs and no wickets. Is he out injured too?

Now if anyone of Zaheer and Ishant Sharma break down before the test leg ends, then it would be clear that BCCI has not learnt anything from the England fiasco. The possible replacements for any of this 2 bowlers are worrisome. Ashok Dinda is being talked as Sharma's replacement as per Ganguly's brave claim he made in media few days back. Now anyone who has seen him bowl in ODIs he has played in 2010 would feel that Dinda is going to be a wrong choice. He leaks runs, doesnt have consistency and lacks wickets taking ability.

So that leaves India with the inexperienced trio of:

1. Umesh Yadav

2. A Mithun

3. Vinay Kumar

The Karnataka lads have been very ineffective in flat tracks back home and since the Aussie wickets would be flat too, not sure if this 2 lads can put some brakes on the runs and on the same hands take wickets too. Genuine contenders to ensure the woeful Australian batsmen get their form back and score runs. Irfan Pathan? Will he help? He might have if he had pace, but the sight of Patel standing upto the stumps in Chennai ODI was a disheartening sign. Though the good signs of the swing being back were visible.

The possible lineup for bowling should all bowlers be fit might look like:

1. Zaheer

2. Ishant

3. Umesh

4. Ashvin

Should Sharma be unfit then

1. Zaheer

2. Umesh

3. Mithun

4. Ashvin

India are going to miss Praveen Kumar heavily down under.

The batting lineup for India looks settled and Rohit Sharma will need to wait few more games to debut in Tests. Kohli with his superb 132 in the tour game and his run up to this series will seal his spot at 6 in the first 2 tests at least.  One man I hope to score runs is Gautam Gambhir. Its being close to 2 years he last scored a Test 100. Australia would be a good place to start getting the 100s again and ensure his evolution as Test batsman is complete (England the only blot shall remain at least for next 2 years).

Australia are having their own worries.  Shauns are injured and one of them wont play, the other one who is their lone consistent bowler over 2 years, wont bowl. David Warner has a dodgy back, Hughes refuses to learn and Ed Cowan has presented a strong case for himself to be selected with that 100 against tourists in Canberra.  Usman Khwaja is still looking for an innings to prove his international class. Hussey and Ponting are on a daily salary basis like a daily waged laborer. Every innings they fail is going to put more pressure on them. Moreso for Ponting, one single failure means that Test could be his last. Good news : he is up against India, he has been amongst runs against them at home and there is no Harbhajan Singh to rattle him even with his sight.

Michael Clarke remains the only batsman consistent and in form and the danger man for India.

Brad Haddin is secured just by the fact that his replacements are injured. Does he put some sense in his ways of getting out or he continues to throw his wicket in irresponsible way remains to be seen. The bowling attack is little worry than the batting.  Pattinson, Siddle, Lyon and Starc might not look threatening on paper but they are untested. Indians have never played this 4 men before, so the visitors could be little unsure of what to expect.

The MCG has not been a happy hunting ground for India. It has lost its last 4 Tests in 1991-92, 1999, 2003 and 2007. As stated before, this remains a best chance for India to win its first test at MCG and of course first series down under. And for some inspiration they just need to look back effort from their tormentors, a year back to the Boxing day of 2010 when Aussies were rolled over for 98.