India look for new beginning at SCG (Preview)

Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground

Start Time: 23:30 GMT (Previous Day) (05:00 IST)

The year that has just passed by was a strange one for more than billion fans of cricket in India. From the dizzy high of a World Cup win after a 28-year wait to the dark lows of English summer, 2011 was an eventful year that would be etched in the memory of players and fans alike. While India started the year with a gutsy performance at Newlands against South Africa, the denouement came with a tame surrender at Melbourne as Australia sealed the series opening Boxing Day Test with clinical precision.

To be brutally honest, India failed to live-up to the pre-series hype. Billed as the ‘favourites’ due to their vastly experienced and ‘talented’ batting, the meltdown on fourth day was disappointing to say the least. In the end, the ‘G’ was witness to another abject surrender by an Indian team.

So, what went wrong at Melbourne? If one were to look for possible reasons, two spring to the mind without much effort. The first is one quite obvious, batting collapses in both the innings. In addition to the batting horrors, MS Dhoni’s defensive field settings allowed the Australian tail rake up priceless runs. To put things into perspectives, the Australian last four wickets added a total of 211 runs over the two innings when India failed to chase down a target of 292.

On the contrary, Michael Clarke was not only proactive in the field placing department but also while dealing with his reactively inexperienced bowlers. He shuffled his aces like a seasoned leader. More importantly, all his bowlers delivered. Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle breathed fire with the ball. Not that, they bowled faster than Jeff Thomson instead, dished out a brand of relentless, tireless and aggressive fast bowling. Playing on the batsmen’s patience and craft of survival, the trio exploited the mildly helpful conditions to devastating effect.

As of now, India have a batting-line up with astonishing numbers to its credit. The eleven players who will take field for the New Year’s Test have an  aggregate of about 54,000 Test runs which is the highest ever for any team in history of the game. However, these amazing stats will have to translate into something substantial on the field. Talking about numbers, the fuss over the 100th hundred is costing India some vital runs from Sachin Tendulkar’s bat.

Other than Adelaide, Sydney has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Indians in Australia. The traditionally batting-friendly conditions have helped teams like India to make use their of strong suit- batting. No wonder, Sachin’s average at SCG is more than 200 and VVS Laxman has a century in each of the three matches he has played here.

Likewise, Ricky Ponting with five tons to his name would also relish batting in a landmark game for the venue. The second match of the Border-Gavaskar trophy would be SCG's 100th Test. Although, Indian bowlers were able to reign in Ponting and company at Melbourne, achieving a similar feat would demand determination and grit.

One thing that should give India some heart is that they have recovered from similar positions in the past. The visitors’ notorious slow starts especially on overseas tours have seen them concede the initiative more than once but it remains to be seen if they are able to make amends this time around.

Australia Squad: David Warner, Ed Cowan, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (Capt), Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin (wk), Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ryan Harris.

India Squad: MS Dhoni (Capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkye Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Zaheer Khan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar.