Indian fielding will be woefully exposed on the big Australia grounds — Kapil

Also walking in with the team alongwith the original 14 which had left from India last month was Nayan Mongia, responding to an SOS after MSK Prasad’s knee injury in Brisbane during the team’s first practice match. Mongia’s arrival and Prasad’s participation in the long work-out indicating that the first-choicewicket-keeper has regained his fitness, naturally raised many questions which coach Kapil Dev was quick to answer.

The story goes thus: During the Brisbane match, Prasad developed a swelling in his knee, which was not thought to be serious at that time. Dravid was asked to keep wickets in the second practice game of the tour, against New South Wales.

On proper medical examination, the doctors gave Prasad only 50 percent chance of recovery before the December 10 first Test. “It was then we asked for Mongia to be rushed here as we were not willing to take the risk of asking Dravid to keep the wickets in the Test match,” Kapil said.

Now the tale has taken another twist. Prasad today was declared fit by the doctors, meaning that he was available for selection once again. And, if by tomorrow, the captain and the coach are convinced that Prasad is 100 per cent fit, he is going to play and not Mongia. That is the story so far of MSK Prasad’s `mysterious’ injury and the `sudden’ reintroduction of the`ignored’ Mongia into the Indian team.

Stars, it seemed, favoured Mongia’s visit to Down Under, made a second wicket-keeper available to India, but it is unlikely he will play in the Tests, at least in the first one. His future, obviously, depends upon how well Prasad keeps wickets here.

As the Indians stretched on the huge Adelaide Oval ground, Kapil, dressed in shimmering black trousers and shirt (his kit had not arrived on the ground till then) watched his team do some unusual exercises under the guidance of physio Andrew Leipus.

First they almost leap-frogged from one end of the ground to the other and later considerable time was spent on using a rope to stretch their shoulders and wrists. Kapil stretched his eyes, taking in the whole ground in one expanse and said: “Look how big the ground is and it is on grounds like these our fielding gets woefully exposed, particulary our throwing.”

The Adelaide Oval is huge and the Indians do need to work on strengthening their throwing arms. Yes, they doneed to strengthen not only their throwing arm but a whole lot of things if they want to stretch this seemingly invincible Australians on their own home ground.

Kapil must have been so preoccupied by the thoughts of what lay ahead of them that he must have missed out on the beautiful and serene surroundings of the Adelaide Oval. This cricket ground is nestled between a huge park, Elder Park Rotunda, supporting trees of different hues of green and the River Torrens which runs across the city.

It was here yesterday the Australians used a novel way of training. It was a bit of triathlon, a touch of treasure hunt and the motivation of competiton which spurred the team members. Four teams of three started at the hotel swimming pool and after five minutes of intervals, raced against the clock. They raced through the parkland across the River Torrens to the Adelaide Oval and back to the Park Rotunda.

One positive news for the Australians emerging from this light-hearted outing was the speedy recovery of RickyPonting, who a few days ago was barely able to walk. But the Indians are not unduly worried about what the Australians are doing off the field. Kapil, Sachin Tendulkar and Company have a lot of homework to do before they sit on Thursday to pick up the final XI for the first Test. The desire to win may be very strong, but do they have the resources?

Sachin Seeks Sir Don
ADELAIDE: Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar is keen to spend more time with reclusive Australian great Sir Donald Bradman. Tendulkar arrived in Bradman’s hometown of Adelaide with the Indian team for Friday’s first Test against Australia.

“I’ll try and give him a call and it would be nice if I could just meet him and say hello to him,” Tendulkar said. Bradman is notoriously publicity shy and rarely ventures out of his suburban home.

Meanwhile, Tendulkar fended off suggestions the Indians had adopted a more aggressive approach. “It’s nothing that we have planned, but there are sometimes the frustrations do come out on the fieldand it’s very natural. As long as it’s within limits, I think it’s quite okay.”