Are Aussies vulnerable against spin?

Are the mighty Australians vulnerable to spin bowling? If you by their present performance in the on-going Champions Trophy suggest just that as they struggled really hard against a mediocre West Indies spinners like Chris Gayle (part time) and Marlon Samuels in their disastrous opening match on October 18.

Surprisingly, their skipper Ricky Ponting and most experienced batsman Damien Martyn, who are good players of spin bowling, have struggled to find form even though the latter got runs against England in their previous game on October 21.

Agreed that most of the top batsmen in the world would struggle against top class spinners on spinner friendly pitches in the sub-continent but nobody expected the Aussie batsmen to struggle against part time bowler Gayle, who is fast becoming a wicket-taking bowler, and a not so impressive Samuels.

Now it will be interesting to see how the world champions will handle hosts’ two off-spinners Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar when the two teams clash in the most awaited match of the tournament on October 29 at Mohali.

It will also be an interesting battle between the West Indies spinners (Gayle and Samuels) and the much-respected Indian batting line-up (only against spin), which includes the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, The Wall Rahul Dravid and the destructive Virender Sehwag when the two rivals clash tomorrow in Ahmedabad.

In fact it will be a dress rehearsal of sort when the Indians play the West Indies and you can be rest assured that the kangaroos will be watching that game very, very keenly just to see the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Sehwags handle the West Indies spinners and in turn how the great Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chandrapaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan play ‘The Turbanator’ and Powar.

The Aussie batsmen like Simon Katich, Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds have always struggled against top class spin bowling even though the much younger lot like Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey and one of the most destructive batsmen in the world Adam Gilchrist have shown a penchant for spin bowling.

The Aussies, for once, have shown a little weakness against spin bowling in this tournament and the other teams will be ready to expose them thoroughly. However, the world champions are known to eradicate their weaknesses quickly and bounce back with more vigor and let us hope they continue to do so as the matches so far have been totally one-sided and real boring.

As far as India is concerned, selecting a winning combination against a stronger team than England, seems to be far from over. Probably, the best choice at the moment for them would be to rest players, who are totally out of form and give their reserves on the bench a chance to prove themselves.

And one such change for the betterment of the team would be to give Dinesh Mongia a look-in in place of Suresh Raina, who has been struggling to find form.