Team India and Australia are working hard in preparation for the 2nd test in Mohali, the whether has been a dampener for the teams preparation and also the pitch preparation. Mohali as we all know will be a true wicket for all the five days and the conditions in this season will help the seam bowlers and batsmen would love to see the ball nicely coming on to the bat. Overall we can expect some good cricket over the next 5 days.
With the 1st test drawn, its a 3 test series with interesting battle in the field. I would say both the teams are even with slight advantage towards the Aussies going into the 2nd test. I expect both the teams to play some positive cricket rather than playing defensive cricket. Its very unusual to see that Australia score under 3 runs per over in the 1st innings of a test match. Indian top order has been struggling for form for some time now, hence as expected were playing time rather than scoring runs.
Aussie batting looks solid with Ponting,Hussey and Katich in good form backed by Watson and Haddin. We all know that Hayden does not stay out of action for long and sure he will enjoy the bounce and pace in the Mohali wicket and Clark is good player to fail for too long. The Aussies must be worried about the bowling attack for sure, their spin attack is very weak and India should be planning to exploit this, having said that Lee and Johnson will be very tough to negotiate in helpful wickets.
India's biggest worry is their top order, the fab-4 managed to score some runs but all the four struggled to get the runs. Sachin in particular looked out of touch and his feat was not moving and was playing away from the body against the spinners most of the time. No doubt that he is the champion batsmen the world has ever seen and also as a die hard fan, i wish to see a good knock in Mohali. Ganguly,Dravid,Laxman managed to score runs but as the wicket in Bangalore was under-prepared they had to struggle to get their scores. Of the fab-4 Dravid looked much better and hope he gets big score in Mohali. Sehwag and Gambhir should continue to provide good starts and hopefully gambhir will capitalize on the good starts.
Kumble must be hoping to see a repeat or better performance from his seamers. Zaheer khan and Ishant were just brilliant in the 1st test and Ishant should be just raring to go in the helpful Mohali wicket. Zaheer's past performance has been in patches and has not been consistent meaning if he picks wickets in a test the next will not be that good. Hope he is maturing as a bowler and will start performing consistently. Harbhajan playing in front of his home ground should be hoping to do well but i doubt if the wicket will help spinners much, if kumble is fit the wicket should help him to get back to his stride.
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3 comments:
A very interesting contest on cards. Considering this is a seamer friendly track I will reckon India to play three seamers. Also Munaf's recent form would further strengthen the bowling department. IMHO I would like to rest our skipper Anil bhai at least for one test, he neither 100% fit nor in the a good form so why play him in the 11. This being a very crucial match in the series we must field our best possible 11.
Whats your take on this Vasu??
Yes, I do agree on your views but these things rarely happen in Indian Cricket.
Long Long back when Venkatraghavan was captain and in england this happened, he was captain for 1st test and 12th man for the 2nd test but these things will not happen today.
May be Kumble can rest himself but on the contrary i feel that Kumble may be effective in the bouncy Mohali wicket, lets see how things turn out ???
Yes vasu... this should be a good contest and has all the ingredients to become one such. Hope the Fab-4 plays to their true potential here.. and the Indian pace dept does its duty in helpful conditions. But, the pre-match talks are going a bit over-board. Its not as authoritative as McGrath or S.Waugh used to speak. But, a bit childish. INdians need to learn a lot abt that.... that too from the Aussies... they are the kings in all depts of this game.
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