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The writing on the wall
 As
I write this, the Brisbane Test is still two days away, so I
am really sticking my neck out in predicting who among the
Indian players will perform in the series opener and who won’t.
First the
batting. My man of the match is Sadagopan Ramesh, not merely
because he is the man in form. I had a long conversation
with him quite some time ago about his batting technique and
came away convinced he has the game for Australian wickets.
Ramesh had been practising a lot on concrete wickets, and
also to play a tennis ball thrown at him from close quarters
at great pace. The tactic might not have helped his footwork
overmuch, but it certainly forced him to bring the bat down
rapidly and without too much of backlift. It also taught him
how to weave out of harm’s way against the short-pitched
stuff. To top it all, Ramesh is a determined young man, with
a cool head.
 Sachin
Tendulkar, is, of course, Sachin Tendulkar. He is India’s
best batsman for Australian conditions and can take the
attack to the enemy camp. If he clicks in the first Test, it
will be a huge psychological boost for India. I now come to
my favourite cricketer, Rahul Dravid. Great batsman, India’s
man for crises, but with a question mark against his
technique in Australian conditions. With his commitment to
front foot play, he may still struggle, but there is plenty
of evidence he has been working hard at adapting to the
bounce of Australian wickets. If he scores big in the first
Test, then there will be no stopping him. I keep my fingers
crossed.
V V S
Laxman. A very, very, special batsman indeed. It will be
wishful thinking to expect him to repeat Kolkata 2001. It
will be a real Indian summer down under, if he turns on the
magic.
Of the
others, I expect Parthiv Patel to come on as a batsman. He
has great potential in this department. As for Akash Chopra,
it will be a huge learning curve. He has the right attitude.
 As
for Virendra Sehwag, he needs loads of luck and some bad
Australian bowling to get away to a flier, given his present
lack of form.
The
Indian bowling? Dismissing Australia twice in the Test looks
an impossible task with our thin resources. The medium
pacers may dent the pride of a couple of Aussie batsmen, but
I don’t see them running through eleven. Kumble’s
experience may make him a better bowler in Australia than in
the past, but he too will struggle to trigger collapses.
Harbhajan Singh will be vastly less effective than at home.
The selectors have blundered in not including Murali Kartik.
They could have done that at the expense of either one of
the seamers or Deep Dasgupta.
My
prediction: India will lose the first Test by a substantial
margin.
V
Ramnarayan
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