Australians look better prepared

Indiaaaaah-Indiaaaaah! the crowds chanted as the tail showed some spirit after the match had been lost. Funny guys because they really shoul...

Indiaaaaah-Indiaaaaah! the crowds chanted as the tail showed some spirit after the match had been lost. Funny guys because they really should have been shouting 8216;BCCI-BCCI8217;. But they didn8217;t. And I wonder if Irfan Pathan, defiant to the end, would have wiped the sweat of his brow and said, a touch breathlessly, 8216;8216;I have always dreamt of wearing the BCCI cap!8217;8217; This test match, another that provided good value to the patrons, was about India and Australia and may nobody ever forget that.

India lost by 217 and, strange as it may seem, go to Chennai with something to cheer about. The younger players showed great heart, nobody more than Irfan Pathan. He is a wonderfully spirited fellow, big-hearted and possessed of desire, that most critical ingredient. He bowled with fire but more than that, showed that India8217;s search for an all-rounder might be throwing up a serious contender.

He defended dourly, once not scoring for 57 balls, and attacked strongly, once hitting the ball into the second tier of the stadium, making you wonder what all the fuss about Rahul Dravid playing Shane Warne exclusively was all about. He is perfect at number eight but one day he will bat number seven and you can8217;t help thinking that if he progresses the way he is, the world will be his for the asking one day.

But it has been said of other people before and I will be just as interested in seeing how he handles himself as in how he tackles the opposition.

Harbhajan put his head down and did his batting talent some justice. Too often he sells himself short and hopefully somebody has had a word with him about it. Maybe the fact that he bowled as well as I have ever seen him, in the second innings had something to do with it but with Harbhajan, as with so many gifted young men in India, you can8217;t help wondering if the opposition is within.

Dravid would be delighted with the time he spent in the middle in the second innings but India have some serious problems with the top order. India lost the Test when they were down 136-6 in the first innings and 19/4 in the second and nobody can win from there.

It is worrying to see how much the middle order depends on the openers and that is why it will be interesting to see what Ganguly decides for Chennai. Does he give Chopra another go, does he go with his publicly stated preference for Yuvraj Singh or will he, as I suspect, opt for Mohammad Kaif and ask Parthiv Patel to move up again.

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India have fallen back to short term measures before and I fear this is what lies ahead. More interesting, will VVS Laxman rediscover his feet against spin?

Australia did more things right than India, that is why they are the best cricket team in the world. They have looked better prepared than in the past and are not willing to embrace aggression to the exclusion of everything else. They didn8217;t miss Ricky Ponting, found a great new talent in Michael Clarke and the blue chips, Gilchrist and McGrath showed they are in fine form. Their only worry, if indeed it can be called that, is that Shane Warne still doesn8217;t enjoy bowling in India.

But they are 1-0 up and favourites to beat the BCCI in this series.