Test previews / Ed Hawkins / 14 January 2008 / 1

The Racing Post's Ed Hawkins looks ahead to Wednesday's big one...

While Australia's series with India has attracted attention for alleged racism, accusations of cheating and Ricky Ponting's popularity with his countrymen plummeting fast, it may have escaped punters' attention that one thing of more importance has happened: India have been written off.

The hullabaloo that has gone on should be forgotten and instead we need to be focusing on whether the tourists really are [9.8] shots to win in Perth in the third Test, which starts early on Wednesday.

For if you can block out the cries of claim and counter claim, there have been nagging voices mumbling away that India will be blown away on a WACA pitch that has pace and bounce. With the match almost upon us, they have got increasingly louder.

So do we listen and factor in the importance of the surface?

Well, the first thing to say is to forget about the pace. This should not worry India's batsmen. Indeed, class acts with a willow in hand love nothing more than the ball coming on to the blade. For them the quicker it comes on, the quicker they can despatch it to the boundary.

What will be alien to India is the bounce. In direct contrast to pace, no batsman likes a ball rearing up, taking the shoulder of the bat or endangering the digits. Particularly ones from the subcontinent, where slow pitches ensure the ball keeps quite low.

Specifically the men punters should look to oppose are Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman.

Sehwag is expected to come in for the underperforming Yuvraj Singh, open the batting and allow Rahul Dravid to drop to his favoured No 3 position.

Unfortunately Sehwag has had minimal cricket on the tour and it is a huge ask for a guy to come in and score runs against the new ball. What makes it worse for Sehwag is that he is a batsman who has been consistently troubled by the rising ball.

With him and Wasim Jaffer up front one could consider a lay of India's opening partnership scoring 30 runs or more at [2.0], although this market is a burgeoning one.

Ganguly is famous for hating the short ball - he is suffering from a virus so may not be too light on his feet - while VVS Laxman's muscles appear to have slowed if the way he ducked into a Brett Lee short one in the first Test is anything to go by.

So perhaps the hype surrounding Australia's chances of a record-breaking 17th-straight win are justified. Chris Rogers, on standby to replace an injured Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and India coach-in-waiting Gary Kirsten have all said it could be too quick.

If it is, it would be a departure for Perth pitches of recent times. Sure it was quick when Dennis Lille and Jeff Thomson used to ply there trade there but for last year's Ashes Test there was nothing hair-raising about it. Which is why such efforts have been made to make Perth live up to its former reputation.

This domestic season in Australia has hinted that it may be back to its brutally-bouncy best.

In Western Australia's Pura Cup matches this term there have been six five-wicket hauls by bowlers and five of them have been by pacemen.

And it is the type of bowler who has been successful which should make us take note. They all rely on bounce. None more so than the usually wild Brett Dorey, whose five wickets for WA against South Australia in December stood out. So too did the nine wickets that Steve Magoffin and Mathew Inness, both bowlers who need lift, shared for the home team against Queensland.

If you are looking for a batsman to side with, bear in mind that Phil Jaques hit 167 at the WACA for New South Wales in October, Mike Hussey, on his home ground, has two first-class double centuries there and runs against England last time out.

And don't forget Sachin Tendulkar, who, as an 18-year-old, hit a century there in 1992 which has gone down as one of the greatest innings of all time. A repeat would be good timing for not just India but the game as a whole. It would be good to talk about something positive.

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1. mahi | 17 January 2008

   Good ! and there is more on the same topic:

   https://www.cricketviewer.com/australia-focus-on-test-record.html

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