Why these experiments always on a tour?

In the one week since the Indian cricketers have reached Australia, the journos have churned out enormous copy, much of which has to do with the mind games the two caps are indulging in ahead of the four-Test series.

If the Australians are debating whether they should go into the Boxing Day with an all-pace attack or include the left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg, the Indians are unable to decide as to what to do with Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

The Australian media is going through the CVs of the Famous Five --- Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman --- who are definitely on their last tour of Australia. To be fair to the Australian newspapers they have presented the positive attributes of the five players even if they have not got any younger from the last tour down under four years ago.

Skipper Kumble spoke for all his senior colleagues when he said their motivation levels have gone up by the thought of bowing out completing their CVs with the inclusion of the hitherto missing series victory in Australia. Surely, they are not as fit or as confident as Matthew Hayden to say that they would like to play till they are 40.

But each one of them has talked about the burning desire to beat Australia. In their own backyard, though none of them considers it as the last frontier.

How often have we heard the players talk of missing their best chance of beating Australia, South Africa, West Indies and England? When Sourav Ganguly said that the Indians missed a golden opportunity of winning a series in South Africa the last time the Indians were there under Rahul Dravid, he knew how the team under his captaincy failed to press home the advantage against West Indies, England and Australia after taking a 1-0 lead.

Eventually, Dravid’s team beat the two weaker sides of the lot, West Indies and England, in the last two years. It was still an achievement because no team is weak playing at home and it is all the more sweeter as India have won a series In the Caribbean after 35 years and in England after 21 years.

Look at the Australian scenario. India have never won a series down under, and if they win this time it will be great as the country has turned 60 as an independent nation. Incidentally, Australia were the first cricketing nation India toured after independence in 1947.

It takes some doing to beat Australia. They have not lost a series at home for 14 years or 26 series and they are on a roll, having won the last 14 Tests on the trot. If India could beat them in the odd Test, they can do it more than once in a series. Surely, this Australian side could be beaten with a bit of application and determination.

Anil Kumble is right whenever the batsmen put runs on the board the bowlers got the 20 wickets necessary to win a Test. Kumble can’t ask for a more experienced and formidable batting line-up to give him the runs for his bowlers to buy the wickets.

In Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman India have the best middle-order batsmen in contemporary cricket with an aggregate of close to 33 thousand runs in 442 Tests and a staggering 87 centuries between them to boot. Geoff Marsh thinks that the four batsmen may not be able to stand up to the fierce Australian attack because of their reflexes are slowing down. When they could negotiate the moving ball in England, they with their vast experience should be able to cope with the bounce of the Australian pitches. Some times these great batsmen could play by memory too.

What Kumble should remember is that at home even three spinners could not bowl the opposition out on turners. In fact, Kapil Dev and Srinath bowled India to victory on two-paced pitches, not the spinners. In South Africa and England India had Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Munaf Patel, the former in particular proving to be an aggressive bowler who can rattle the batsmen. Munaf may not make it to Australia as the 17th player after annoying his state association by turning out to be a malingerer, failing to turn up for Ranji trophy matches to prove his match fitness. Sreesanth, however, hopes to get a call for the third Test as he is confident of getting fit by that time.

In recent years, the young zestful medium-pacers have bowled the Indians to Test victories, thus making the curators wary about giving green tops and seaming tracks. Melbourne’s curator’s helplessness to provide a bouncy track because of inclement weather, the Indians have an even chance of beating Australia.

The circumstances and the pitch condition could also encourage Dravid to open the innings to accommodate Yuvraj in the eleven. That will force Laxman to bat at number three. These moves might lead to a clash between the team management and the national selectors as the team will be going into the Test with a makeshift opener sidelining two designated openers Sehwag and Dinesh Kaarthick. If Sehwag was on the selectors’ radar, he should have been played against the Pakistanis. Is it fair on Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Kaarthick, who himself was pushed up in South Africa?

The team management will also be tempted to play Harbhajan looking at the slow and low pitch even as they would like to include Irfan Pathan to give depth to batting. If only the Indians had more than one warm-up game they could have tried out the young Ishant Sharma and Pankaj Singh to see how well they hit the deck and make the ball rear. It is still worthwhile to play Ishant Sharma instead of going with three left-arm seamers.

It may be a delightful situation to be in with such an embarrassment of riches, but the fact is the bench strength can’t win Tests, only decisiveness and the right combination will. Come to think of it, why these experiments on a tough tour?

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