This is a decent selection, very much along expected lines. We didn't have eleven batsmen playing like Srikkanth, as some feared. While it's good to see Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar and Badrinath in, the return of Ganguly isn't such a good idea. He's vulnerable against the Australians, and they simply have to bring on Binga or Mitch and he's gone. That place could have been used by Badrinath, who's surely good enough to play Test cricket for India, after dominating the A-team series in which he's played with that massive average. Let's just hope he's not in the starting lineup, as the team can gain little or nothing from it. They can, however, gain something from Badrinath or Mishra playing.
The selection of Amit Mishra is a good one. With Kumble not likely to hang around for too long (unless Target 700 is on his mind) and not taking too many, he should make the team in good time. He's more experienced, more accomplished and more productive than Chawla, and can turn the ball a lot, though Chawla is a little ahead in batting. He may not make the team as the team isn't likely to go in with five bowlers, let alone three seamers. Then again, taking 20 Australian wickets should be a priority, given their strengths (and the Indian four-bowler unit's weaknesses on flat pitches) so he too should be in the running. He surely deserves this call-up, and can prove his worth in more wats than one.
Taking forward the gains from ROI's Irani Trophy win, the batting still doesn't look very dominant. They just wriggled themselves to chunky scores, and a lot of runs were scored by the lower order. They won on the back of impressive performances by the bowling combination of Zaheer, Munaf and the spin stalwarts, with some support from RP Singh. Will they take 20 wickets without a fifth bowler? Looks very unlikely, unless the matches get pitches similar to the one in Mumbai in 2004, or that laid in Kanpur this year against the Proteas- in other words, minefield dustbowls.
The pitches should be exactly that. Not seamer-friendly, rather, India's seamers need to adapt to conditions not so helpful, the way their Aussie counterparts often did. The Aussie seamers would revel in such conditions, putting the Indian batsmen in a tight spot. Flat pitches are a definite no-no, as the Aussies would massacre the Indian bowling attack, often a man down, while the Indians, even on flat pitches, don't dominate too well, and are often crushed by large leads. Unpredictable turners are the only solution; there will be the obvious complaints about the pitches not being Test-standard, but this is India, and they will have to prepare pitches that favour the home team.
