Warne's turn for the better

Warne's turn for the better
ASHISH SHUKLA

ADELAIDE, DECEMBER 15: When Shane Warne returned from Australia's tour of India last year, he said he had nightmares of the savaging Sachin Tendulkar. Before the Adelaide Test, Warne had 21 wickets for 1,188 runs in 15 Tests and One-Day Internationals against India. In the Adelaide Test, he took six for 113 in the two innings to gain some pride.

Warne kept Tendulkar restrained and did not allow Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid to dominate him. The reasons are two-fold: his own form and the timid approach of the Indians. In India, they hit him against the spin and played across the line. In the first Test, the Indians were different. Dravid was standing much beyond the leg-stump to counter his big turners. But, it was of no help.

Warne is different from other leggies in that he doesn't bowl middle and off-stump line. He bowls on the leg-stump, mostly beyond leg-stump and still has batsmen completely baffled.

Sunil Gavaskar recounts how when he was a stop-gap manager of the Indian team for a couple ofmatches in Sharjah in 1994, he had told the boys not to come into the dressing room if they were out to a Warne flipper.

``My idea was just to let the boys know they were Indians and they should not be getting out to a leg-spinner,'' he said.

The Indians will need to revert to the methods they employed earlier to hit him against the spin and play across the line to his big leg breaks. If they don't, they are sitting ducks for Warne.

``He's a freak. It's not always easy to come down the track to him since he doesn't flight the ball as often and keeps the loop low. It's some wonder he still manages to extract such a huge turn,'' says Gavaskar.