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From Fifty50 to Twenty20 and back to Fifty50. Well, that’s the world of
cricket these days. There is no respite for the players what with the
tight international schedules. With the kind of money in the game these
days one is sure the players are not complaining. After all they are
professionals and they have to get used to the exhausting program but
it is kind of hard for cricket lovers sometime to follow who is playing
who and where and whether it is the longer version, the shorter version
and of course now one has to contend with the newest and shortest
version which is bound to grow rapidly what with the success of the
Twenty20 World Cup – particularly in this country after the Indian
team’s triumphant campaign in South Africa.
However that memorable victory is now part of history and cricketing
folklore. The focus is now on the series of seven ODIs between India
and Australia scheduled to commence with the day night game at
Bangalore on Friday. Both the teams have had no breathing space with
the Twenty20 World Cup having ended on Monday.
In fact India and
Australia clashed in the semifinal last Saturday and many cricketers
who figured in that game will be part of the squads for the ODI series.
But there are some familiar faces missing from both camps. A few of
Indian cricket’s newest heroes including Joginder Sharma and Rohit
Sharma will be missing from the ODI line up. Virender Sehwag who was
part of the Twenty20 squad still remains out of favour as far as ODIs
are concerned while Ajit Agarkar has rightly been axed. In their place
`The Big Three’ of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid
return as also Zaheer Khan. Also back is Ramesh Powar and three
spinners – Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh are also in the 15 – gives
rise to the theory that two such bowlers might find a place in the
playing eleven.
Many of the heroes of the victorious Twenty20 squad however are in the
ODI squad and will no doubt be the cynosure. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
leading at home for the first time will be under intense scrutiny along
with his deputy Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Robin
Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh. India of
course will be playing their first ODI series since they lost narrowly
to England 4-3 earlier this month but as everyone knows the Indian team
is a difficult proposition at home. And after the momentous victory
parade and grand felicitation function in Mumbai on Wednesday it is
time to get their feet back on familiar territory and get the better of
the Aussies.
Normally Australia should start as favorites but the world champions
have had their share of problems coming into the series. Injuries have
ruled out Shane Watson, Mike Hussey and Shaun Tait weakening the team
somewhat. Their replacements Brad Haddin, James Hopes and Ben
Hilfenhaus are no doubt good players but nowhere near the players they
have replaced. As such Australia will be hoping that their established
stars come off if they want to win the series. With the likes of Ricky
Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark,
Michael Clark, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Hogg, Brad Hodge
and Andrew Symonds around the visitors still present formidable
opposition. There is however some doubt about Ponting’s fitness
following a hamstring injury he suffered during the Twenty20 World Cup
and Adam Voges who recently led the Australia A team in Pakistan has
been added to the squad as cover for the Australian captain.
It remains to be seen whether India who will be vociferously backed
following their triumph in South Africa can maintain the momentum and
pull off a victory. As Dhoni himself admitted the team not being under
any pressure was certainly one reason why the team came through a
triumphant campaign in South Africa. At home however expectations are
always that much higher particularly after the victory at Johannesburg
on Monday. It certainly will be a whole new ball game for Dhoni and his
men as they take on a strong Aussie side along with the pressure
factor. Ricky Ponting, never one to miss out on playing the mind games,
remarked pointedly at the tour eve media conference that the pressure
will be even more on India after the Twenty20 victory. The visitors on
their part will be thirsting for vengeance for their semifinal loss in
the Twenty20 and my mind goes back 24 years. The West Indies having
lost the World Cup to India came over to this country a few months
later on a revenge mission and went on to complete a clean sweep of the
five-match ODI series. Whether the Australians have it in them to
inflict something similar on an Indian team on a high will be known
over the next 20 days.
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More Views by Partab Ramchand
