Australian spirit at a high as India change guard
November 2nd 2008 22:23
An untried stadium in Nagpur will be the venue to decide if Australia can defend the Border-Gavaskar trophy against India. With the series still open after two draws and an Indian victory, the performances from both teams in this test series should add real intrigue going into the last match.
The venue for the fourth Test in the central-Indian city of Nagpur is brand new and is thus a complete unknown.
For Australian captain Ricky Ponting, this will keep his side on a level playing field because India themselves do not know the pitch and general conditions. As Ponting said earlier, anything could indeed happen.
Regardless of the destination though, Australia will be holding their heads high after their efforts against India in the third test.
After being set a massive 613 runs to chase, the Baggy Green bounced back to bat extremely well in conditions which were not nearly as friendly as the ones India earned from the coin toss.
Australia's top order in particular all made hefty contributions, culminating in a Michael Clarke century which will indeed install much-needed confidence for Ponting and company.
Although they failed to reach India's mammoth total, Australia did get close enough to install some doubt among the Indian batsman.
This coincided with Australia’s bowlers forcing India onto the back foot after exploiting some reverse swing to trouble their opponents.
Even though Ponting admitted that his bowlers needed to be doing that in the first innings, he should be pleased that the hard work his attack has put in is now starting to pay off, with spearheads Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson all performing admirably with the ball in hand.
While Australia now head into the deciding test with much needed confidence, a changing of the guard has now surfaced for India.
Bowling Talisman Anil Kumble announced his retirement from cricket near the conclusion of the third test, which was arguably the biggest news to come out from a third test stalemate.
Plenty of pressure has been put on Kumble over the last few weeks as he struggled to perform, much of it quite reasonable given the circumstances.
But with Kumble now out of the firing line, Harbhajan Singh will be the epitome of India's bowling attack, with their spin stocks under some immense pressure.
Singh's return though for India could not have come at a better time and they will now be stronger than they were in Delhi.
Throw in the rise to captaincy for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and India could rise to the lofty heights experienced in their second test victory over Australia
One man however that has failed to reach any heights in this series is Rahul Dravid.
India's batting has largely done the business so Dravid's inability to hit a winning score has not yet been needed.
But Dravid has followed a bad series in Sri Lanka with a string of low scores here - he's scored just 117 runs in five innings at 23.4 and recorded one half-century.
There's no doubt both he and India's spinning attack need to come good in Nagpur to avoid another Australian test victory.
Otherwise, many Indian heads will roll.
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