The Class of Australia'07 - The Bowlers

The batters did no damage to my assessment during the brief outing they had against Victoria. Taklya did nothing to justify his inclusion in the side let alone in the boxing test at the MCG. But who knows...he might still play and then blast Clarkey and Co. First things first, let me complete the batting review with Dhoni of Om Shanti Om fame.

MS 'KS' Dhoni: Err...the KS is for Kitchen Sink that Dhoni throws around every now and then at the ball during each of his outings. KS is also for K.Srikanth, the original slam bang batting hero from down south...well at least in my memory ...CK Nayudu some say... I don’t know...never saw him bat. (Wikipedia suggests he was from Andhra). KSv2 is bigger brute with the bat than KSv1 and the other welcome difference is that he seems to be less likely to throw his wicket away just as he throws the ...well...Kitchen Sink at the ball. This will however be the acid test for his batting ....ahem....skills. It is quite likely that he might prove to be an acid test for the metronomic Stuart Clarke as well! In any case KS is a welcome no 7 in our batting line up and can teach the opposition ...especially Stuart Clarke a thing or two about aggression. Go on KS do a quick gun Murugun act for....well...Deepika.

Bowlers now. Not much to write about. Gangools thinks we have a better preposition this time around. Beats me why.

Zaheer 'Zaki' Khan: Better than ever before but still not the best of the breed. Ponting and Gilchrist love to rip him apart. So does Hayden. I sure so will the rest of the Aussies. Zaki is very temperamental. He can bowl very good bouncers and would love to see him bowl a few to the Aussies...i.e. if our batters permit. When challenged he can loose not just his head but also his line and length. I.e. provided he got it right to begin with. He can take a few crucial wickets but nobody in India will bet on him to run through the Aussies and win a match for us. I will take those few wickets and hope he values his own wicket more than he usually does. I sincerely believe that as much as the wickets he takes, we will also need him to score a few runs and delay the proceedings with the bat.

RP 'Rip' Singh: He can be genuinely quick at times. But he is a relative unknown to the Aussies (as much as he is to me). He too can take a few big wickets but wayward too. I can only hope and pray that he gets everything right this time and takes a couple of 'fifers'. He has to ...if we are to win anything like a session if not a test against the Aussies. What little I saw of him indicates that he can rip any side when fully fit. Let it Rip RP or we can let our chances of taking the battle to the Kangaroos RIP.

Irfan 'Chakram' Pathan: He was supposed to be India's Wasim Akram with his pace, yorkers, swing and where are we today? Well our Akram has lost a few yards, the accuracy as well as the Beckhamesque in-swinger ....in fact he has lost his way and is now perilously close to go the Agarkar way. He has shown that when pushed he too can loose his head and bowl like a Chakram. Should Gangools get injured we should play Chakram...I will bet on him to average about 25-30 with the bat and give us a better bowler in bargain

Ishant 'Crouch' Sharma: This grossly underfed lad reminds me of Peter Crouch of Leverpool and England. This chap cannot last the rigors of a test match. Can he? He not really fast or is he?? He cannot be trusted to bowl accurately against the marauding Aussies...they look to dominate from the word go so will he be up to the task??? The selection committee on tour must answer these questions before they choose to play the only right arm trundler (just for the sake of offering some variety to the opposition) in the team. For all other purposes we have Gangools to do the honors.

Harbhajan 'Bhajji' Singh: Our chucker was the highest wicket taker on the last tour if memory serves me right. When on song he is only half a Saqlain Mushtaq who to my mind is the best off-spinner in the world (the great Murali is made of different things and cannot be compared). The current lot of Australians is stronger in the mind as compared those we last toured. Still it will be interesting battle between Bhajji and the Aussie southpaws....I hope.

Anil 'Jumbo' Kumble: Jumbo is our best bet on any wicket. He is no Warney in that he does not spin the ball too much and instead relies on a unique concoction of accuracy, top spin, wronguns, bounce off the wicket and well...plain simple medium pace. On a helpful track he takes no prisoners as the Pakistanis discovered at the Kotla. He is a gritty fighter and a bowler with an indomitable spirit. The Aussies have been known to master the art of mental disintegration. Often they employ the strategy to demoralize their rivals by meticulously targeting their captain. They may not give Jumbo any or many wickets but here is one bowler that will never bow down before the collective might of the Australian batting. If anything employing such a strategy against Jumbo on his last tour down under will prove to be counterproductive.

To sum up -

India struggled to find an opener of Gavaskar's caliber during his heyday and the search continues to this day. The middle order that came to the fore in wake of the Sunny days has entered the twilight zone. Still there are others in this batting lineup that is capable of some stirring performances that will set the Border-Gavaskar trophy afire. Gavaskars and Borders of this world are irreplaceable. Comparing the two sides man to man Australia has an edge with better openers as also a younger, fitter and more solid middle order. So 1-0 to Australia

Our bowling while less fearsome than that of the Aussies could spring a surprise if they play to potential but to win we have to play above it. The Aussie attack is very good even without Warney and McGrath but not great. The Aussies have an edge in the pace department. But I am yet to see a batsman who can play quick bowling as well Gavaskar and Steve Waugh did. So Rawalpindi Express is just a fat boy who had his lunch stolen. It is this Australian strategy of playing just four strike bowlers that was one of reasons we almost pulled off the impossible the last time we were in Australia. It is still 1-0 on this count then.

Cricket history will never be able to do justice to the contribution of work in the outfield to Australia's success. Without a Mark Waugh or Mark Taylor in the slips, Warney and Pigeon would not be the same. That Punter's side has been more successful than Mark Taylor's or Steve Waugh's side suggests that the Aussies in the field today are better than ever before. If there is a wide gap between the two sides it is here. A run-out here...a stunning catch there...a few diving stops to save a certain boundary and what is very good bowling attack can suddenly or easily become a great bowling combination....a winning one at that. So 2-0 to Aussies.

If it comes to a point where we are in a position to win a few sessions and get to a situation where the Aussies have to draw or save the match... I will trust the umpires or rains in Australia to stick it in our back. So 2-0 to Aussies on the final count.