India vs. Australia; runs, runs and more runs!
The Indo-Aussie cricketing rivalry has always been one of my favourites. Be it Rohit's disdainfully graceful double hundred at Bangalore, Ishant's heroics at the Commonwealth Bank series triumph in 2008 and more recently, Australia's comeback from 2-0 to a 3-2 series victory, the contests have always been captivating, passionate and powerful. There’s been a fair share of drama off the field, but let’s not get into that. Lately, the resurgence of India’s fast bowling wolf-pack has evened out the contest, and how! That’s one department in which Australia was head and shoulders above India and more often than not, it evidently made the difference. Not. Any. More. The thrill of watching India’s quicks tear through Australia at Perth in 2018 remains my fondest memory of this team. Rewind the clock 10 years and who would’ve thought that India would terrorize the mighty Aussies through sheer pace? Well, you aren’t dreaming!
There’s no doubt that Kohli hasn’t forgotten Australia’s brilliant fightback in India last year, in this very format. Smith, Warner and Starc boost the side by a mile and let’s not make the mistake of forgetting Labuschagne, whose grown leaps and bounds to become the world’s number three ranked batsman in Test cricket, in less than a year. Maxwell’s omission is beyond all cricketing logic- let alone Turner and Carey, there are probably a handful of batsman in world cricket who can replicate the magnificence of Maxwell. Considering that two out of the three games are on the true surfaces of Mumbai and Bangalore, Maxwell really should’ve been on that flight to India. Like in the World Cup, they’d be backing their top three batsmen to take up the majority of the workload. On these pitches, there isn’t any reason to believe that Finch, Warner and Smith won’t express themselves. Warner’s the IPL king, Smith’s a freak and Finch’s ODI record speaks for itself. It’s the middle order that I’m worried about. Turner and Handscomb didn’t exactly set the BBL on fire. Alex Carey could be the trump card- he’s a good rotator of strike and doesn’t let the spinners settle. Marsh, Maxwell and Stoinis have demonstrated great form consistently at the BBL 09 and yet, neither of these multi-skilled cricketers has found a place. On the bowling front, there’s plenty of light. Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood would enjoy letting it through at the Wankhede and Chinaswamy. There’s always something in it with the new ball on these wickets. The flipside being that lack of early wickets in the powerplay means a plethora of runs for the remaining 40 overs. There’s when Adam Zampa could be key. He’s done well in India before and has a restrictive as well as a wicket-taking side to his game. The ball comes on really nicely throughout the innings and Australia would be banking on their fine army of fast bowlers, with Zampa’s smarts in the middle overs to deliver the goods.
These two teams couldn’t be more similar. Like Australia, India relies so much on that top three. Iyer has showed some class at four, but has lacked ability against the quicker bowlers at times. What’s interesting to see is whether Dhawan walks right back into the team. Kohli has maintained the policy of giving a player back his spot after an injury, but given Rahul's form, exceptions could well be made this time around. Pant showed progress in the series against the West Indies with a glimpse of his IPL-self. If he can step it up a notch against this Australian bowling attack, his ever-growing amount of critics would be fewer in number. A choice has to be made between Jadhav and Pandey . One has showed great domestic form and played a breezy knock against Sri Lanka at Pune while the other was deemed not good enough and dropped mid-way through the World Cup. With all due respect to Kedar Jadhav and his contributions to Indian cricket, the answer is simple. Saini has the golden opportunity to make a mark bowling alongside the quality of Bumrah and Shami. The way he nailed those yorkers against Sri Lanka, I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if he turns heads against Australia. This is his first big series and with Bhuvneshwar and Chahar injured, there couldn’t be a better time to leave an imprint. Given Kohli’s love for an elongated batting lineup, Jadeja plays for sure, paired with Chahal or Kuldeep. You couldn’t go too wrong by picking either of them.
With brittle middle orders on both sides, it boils down to which top order batsman grabs the game by the scruff of the neck on the given day. I’d go 60%-40% in India’s favour, given the fact that it’s a home series. There are, however a couple of Australian players who could leave India in splits by the end of it- Adam Zampa and Alex Carey.
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