It is easy to be pessimistic about India’s chances in Australia. Quite apart from the fact that they will play the world champions on their home turf, that Australia are on a 14-game winning streak, that they have won their last eight Tests at the MCG and that the pitches and conditions will be very different to those in India, they only get a couple of rainy days to acclimatise. India cannot complain about anything else but this was in their hands and they chose it this way. I’ll go so far as to say that if Australia had to propose an itinerary to beat India, this is pretty close to what they might have come up with. Maybe the first Test in Perth, but a Test anywhere in just about a week of landing would do quite well for them.

These are not artists from the circus for whom life inside the big tent doesn’t change much from Melbourne to Delhi. Or baseball or basketball players or Formula One drivers for that matter. These are players who have to make significant adjustments to their game; more like a driver shifting from concrete to gravel. You don’t do it overnight but that cannot be an excuse because India’s cricket establishment wanted it that way! I have one other concern ahead of the first Test and that concerns the batting order. Typically, classically, you must play two openers and four middle order players. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 must retain their sanctity as far as possible and 4, 5 and 6 can be more fluid. India, by the looks of it, are choosing to do it differently by moving everyone around to accommodate No 6. There is some merit in the idea of playing the best six batsmen and creating a batting order around it, and in doing so dispelling the comfort factor of batting numbers.

... contd.