Double-spin is a possibility at MCG

The effort has to come from within to understand different situations — master the cutters and get the slower ones going too. But Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan are hoping to cash in on the stiff breeze from right to left of the one lakh-capacity bastion. Tickets are still available, but despite the empty chairs, the Indian team has always found the MCG intimidating.

Talk about the Boxing Day Test, or the recent Twenty20 match, this team has been hammered out of shape. And even past tours had similar experiences —- it’s been 16 years since India won here.

That time it was Narendra Hirwani who took centrestage. A new age model in Piyush Chawla is now ready, and maybe Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s instincts would intercept those signals, to field two spinners on a wicket where the ball will get more purchase and stay low — quite unlike usual Australian wickets.

The hosts struggled a bit with the bat in such conditions in Sydney against the Lankans, and the sluggishness of the wicket will bother the Indian batters too. Sachin Tendulkar has had starts in this series, but he has either chopped the ball to his stumps or jumped on it himself accidentally.

Tomorrow the team will need all his maturity and patience to anchor the innings like he’s done in his recent one-day hundreds. That is, while his opening partner Virender Sehwag has a crack at the new ball in the power-play.

Last match centurion Gautam Gambhir is yet to register a big score against Australia, and will be keen to prove his worth against them.

Another dogged approach at the crease may lack flamboyance, but would be effective from his and the team’s point of view. Twice in two matches has the middle order been unstable, and Yuvraj Singh needs to wake up from his slumber.

Sreesanth, meanwhile, was back in practice — observed closely by the two visiting selectors Sanjay Jagdale and Bhupinder Singh — and was firing on all cylinders in the indoor nets today. It is justified that choosing of the final XI gets postponed till tomorrow morning.

The Australians flew in earlier in the day and opted to relax in their hotel rooms. Ponting, with seven points from two outings, would be keen to win tomorrow’s game and make his place in the final almost certain.

That will allow Brett Lee and some of his other players some rest during this hectic summer. Australia are likely to retain their last match.

It started drizzling just when the Indian team arrived at the venue and went on right till the last ball was bowled at the nets, allowing the team to only have some fielding practice in the outfield.

With Melbourne famous for seeing four seasons in a day, it’s difficult to gauge if there will be a full game tomorrow — the weatherman predicts sunny intervals with temperatures around 18 degrees tomorrow. After two washouts, Indian would really be keen to play a whole match.