The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : India must raise its game or...

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Saturday, Oct 09, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

India must raise its game or...

India has been outplayed in this match. Despite doughty contributions from tailenders young and old and a pitch likely to last as long as some marriages, the host faces heavy defeat at the Chinnaswamy ground in Bangalore. Nor is it any use waiting for the sort of miracle witnessed in Kolkata in 2001. Everyone needs to forget about that. Eden Gardens is a happy memory but turnarounds of that magnitude happen once in a lifetime.

In any case Adam Gilchrist and chums are too smart to repeat the mistakes made during the course of that extraordinary series. For a start they will not send for cigars and scotch before the last wicket has been taken as Steve Waugh did on the third morning in Kolkata.

Nor will they give runs away with over-aggressive fields or lose ten wickets in an afternoon because they are torn between going for the win and playing for a draw.

Australia has come prepared. Plans have been in place for several months. Film of every opponent has been studied and ways found of making life hard for them.

As much could be told from the field set in the Indian first innings, a deep cover to curtail Sehwag, a packed leg-side field for Laxman.

Of course the bowlers are experienced and skilful enough to execute with precision the strategies thought up by the think-tank. Harbhajan was fooled by a slower ball and lobbed a catch to a fieldsman placed a few balls earlier for that very reason. The idea that McGrath and Warne and company would allow themselves to be flogged around India again was optimistic. India has been treated with the respect it deserves.

Nor was it merely a matter of tactics. Every Australian was expected to produce a game plan of his own in an attempt to improve individual contributions. After all cricket may be a team game but it also pits man against man and man against conditions.

A blot

Gilchrist and Ponting failed abysmally on their previous Test appearance in this neck of the woods. Naturally neither player was happy with his performance.

As far as they were concerned it was a blot on their record. Three years was plenty of time to make the required adjustments. Had Ponting taken part in the entire series I have not the slightest doubt that runs would have flowed from his bat. He failed on his first trip to Sri Lanka and scored heavily on his second.

Already Gilchrist has put matters right. To describe his century in Bangalore as out of character is to misjudge the man.

At the crease he can seem the breeziest of fellows but he cares about his game and does not enjoy letting the side down. He is an outstanding batsman and counts amongst the finest wielders of the willow of his generation. Of course he was not going to fail again. He has too much brains and too much ability to fall into the trap a second time.

Gilchrist's solution was simple. He decided to give the bowling its due. Whereas in 2001 he went for his shots from the first ball, he took his time in Bangalore and avoided cross-bat shots till his innings had been established.

Of course he also scored a hundred in the first Test in 2001 but that was a risky, swashbuckling affair. Gilchrist was different in Bangalore. But, then, so was the entire Australian side.

It is up to India to respond to the challenge. The feeling grows that it caught the Australians off guard last time. And in 2003/4 the Aussies were distracted by all the palaver over Waugh's farewell.

Gilchrist and his side can concentrate upon overcoming an opponent whose strengths and weaknesses are familiar. Superbly as India performed in those recent series, and notwithstanding the absence of the Australian captain, the Indians face a tougher task this time around.

Can the Indians improve? Dravid's form can return at any moment but Yuvraj and Chopra must also pull their weight. Australia cannot be beaten by a side lacking confidence. But it is the bowling that causes most concern.

Although Harbhajan took five wickets he was a shadow of the spinner who tormented the Australians in 2001. Kumble is unlikely to run through a side unless the pitch is crumbling. Pathan is the best of the bowlers and can bat as well as some of his seniors.

Regardless of the availability of their usual captain and Tendulkar's recovery from tennis elbow the evidence suggests that Australia will recapture the Border-Gavaskar trophy. India must raise its game or face the consequences.

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