While only seven members of the injury-hit Australian squad turned up at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium for the optional practice session on Wednesday morning,Team India arrived with their full-strength squad in the afternoon. But even as the rest of his team mates indulged themselves in a friendly game of football on the sidelines,Harbhajan Singh got right into his routine of bowling at a single stump on one of the practice wickets. Harbhajans session continued for close to an hour and the off-spinner then spent around 10 minutes inspecting the pitch on which the match will be played. Australia have always brought the best out of Harbhajan,but he has struggled to make much of an impact in this series. However,skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is confident that his leading spinner will rise to the occasion and reaffirm his reputation against the Australians. He might have struggled in the first two games,but he has found his rhythm now and bowled really well in the last two games,which is crucial for us, said Dhoni. Harbhajan has struggled with his economy rate this year,having conceded runs at more than five-an-over. And things have been pretty much the same for the 29-year-old during this series he has picked up five wickets at an average of 40.80. Surprisingly,it is left-armer Ravindra Jadeja who has troubled the Aussies. The young Saurashtra all-rounder leads the wicket-taking tally with six scalps at an impressive average of 23.66 and an economy of 4.50. We knew bits and pieces about Jadeja as some of the younger guys have played against him. We always expected him to have a bigger impact with his left-arm spin than his batting and he has troubled all our batsmen with nice pace and flight, said Australia coach Tim Nielsen. Dhoni too said Jadeja had played a crucial role in his teams performance so far. The Indian skipper was also pleased with the performance of his fast bowlers. Even if they havent taken wickets they have bowled economically. Ashish (Nehra) has led the attack while Praveen (Kumar) too has been very impressive. Ishant (Sharma) despite having two off days has done well at times, said Dhoni. The Australians meanwhile have had to juggle with their fast bowling options after spearhead Brett Lee was ruled out. And now with Peter Siddle also on his way home,Ben Hilfenhaus is set to get another opportunity. He bowled six overs at the nets in Mohali and looked impressive. He will have to forget about Nagpur and start afresh and we are hoping that he follows Doug Bollingers example, said the Australian coach about his young paceman,who conceded 83 runs in his 10 overs in the second ODI.
