The Hindu : Sport : Greenish wicket awaits the Indians

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Greenish wicket awaits the Indians

S. Dinakar

Ponting, Hayden will have to pass the fitness test; Harbhajan likely to sit out

Brisbane: A greenish wicket awaits the sides at the Gabba.

The surface and overcast conditions predicted for Sunday suggest that the pacemen could hold sway in the opening ODI of the CB tri-series.

It rained in the city on Saturday and the forecast over the next few days is not heartening either. India has the pacemen who could exploit these elements, but a young batting line-up might be stretched. Much hinges on Sachin Tendulkar’s experience and skill.

The Aussies have a distinct edge in batting, even if skipper Ricky Ponting (sore back) and Matthew Hayden (strained right thigh) miss the day/night opener. Both are influential batsmen but the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Michael Hussey and Andrew Symonds can swing matches.

Ponting, though, sounded confident about leading the side on Sunday and Hayden’s recovery appeared to be on schedule. If either of them failed a fitness test, hard-hitting batsman and left-arm chinaman bowler Adam Voges would step into the eleven.

The Indians would be without Yuvraj Singh for the first game at the ’Gabba. The exciting Manoj Tiwary (cover for Yuvraj) and Munaf Patel (replacing an injured R.P. Singh) have joined the side in Brisbane.

Noffke replaces Clark

Australia will be without Stuart Clark, who has stayed behind in Sydney for family reasons.

He can be a distinct threat on pitches with some juice in them since he can hit the right areas to enhance seam movement with bounce. The lively Ashley Noffke has replaced Clark in the squad.

The Indian batsmen are likely to confronted by the pace trio of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken, with support from steady seamer James Hopes.

Lee could find the conditions ideal for swing. Left-armer Bracken can achieve seam movement and extract lift. Under the lights, when the white ball tends to skid around, Johnson could be effective.

It will benefit India that five of its top six batsmen — Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Karthik and Uthappa — have the experience opening the innings in one format of the game or the other.

Suresh Raina, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan should add weight to the lower order.

The Tendulkar-Sehwag combination has the ability to provide momentum. The Indian batting has done well when provided with a sound start.

With Yuvraj expected to be fit for Tuesday’s match against Sri Lanka, there will be pressure on the middle-order batsmen to retain their places. Somebody like Karthik, if given a chance, will have to make his stint count.

If the conditions continue to be cloudy, the Indians could be tempted to include an additional paceman considering Sehwag can send down decent off-spin.

Tricky situation

However, it will be a brave decision to leave out Harbhajan Singh for either Munaf or swing bowler Praveen Kumar. S. Sreesanth could hurt with his outswing here. Left-armer Pathan should also be able to gain appreciable deviation in the air. Ishant Sharma has the ability to exploit the pitch.

The Aussies will stretch every sinew to triumph in the last edition of the tri-series. The ODI competition in Australia will feature two separate series, involving the host from the next season.

The teams: India (from): M.S. Dhoni (captain), S. Tendulkar, V. Sehwag, G. Gambhir, R. Uthappa, D. Karthik, S. Raina, I. Pathan, Harbhajan, S. Sreesanth, I. Sharma, M. Patel, P. Kumar, M. Tiwary, P. Chawla, R. Sharma.

Australia (from): R. Ponting (captain), M. Hayden, A. Gilchrist, M. Clarke, A. Symonds, M. Hussey, B. Haddin, J. Hopes, B. Lee, M. Johnson, N. Bracken, B. Hogg, B. Hodge, A. Voges, Ashley Noffke.

Umpires: Rudi Koerzten & Steve Davis. Third umpire: Bruce Oxenford. Match Referee: Jeff Crowe.

Play starts at 8.45 a.m. IST.

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