Tendulkar must bat up the order to tame Mc Grath

A Tendulkar centuryis the best protection against collapse and the earlier in the innings, the more positive effect it will have on the rest of the batsmen. Especially as this means he will be tackling McGrath early in the contest. Steve Waugh believes the Tendulkar-McGrath clash will have more importance in the series than the much-hyped contest between Tendulkar and Shane Warne. This is probably a fair summation as there are other Indian batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly who will play Warne well even though he’s back to something near his best, but no one else but Tendulkar has the range of back foot shots to tame McGrath.

Tendulkar also has the ability to belt boundaries off McGrath’s bowling and there are times when it appears that no batsman is allowed to hit a four off the fast bowler, so cranky does he become when the ball rattles into the advertising hoardings. When he is cranky, the lanky quick is at his most vulnerable, but there are very few batsmen in the world who have both the skill and the mentalstrength to maintain dominance over McGrath.

Tendulkar has a history of caning Australian bowling and with the scarring still visible, the captain must use this to his advantage. However, like a good card player he must use his ace when it will have the most damaging effect and not hold it too long, only to discover it’s value has been diminished. A couple of Tendulkar’s onslaughts have infuriated the Australian bowlers and once they are ruffled the train of thought is derailed and that is when Steve Waugh’s team is most vulnerable.

The other area of Australian vulnerability is against good spin bowling. This weakness is not as evident in Australia, but it is still a sore, festering just beneath the surface and when scratched it ill bleed. India need to play two spinners in every Test, but to do that they need to unearth an all-rounder so the attack is balanced with three pace bowlers. I wonder if the experiment with Dravid keeping at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a move in that direction?

Indiacan be pleased with the three Test venues as Adelaide Oval and the SCG assist spinners and whilst the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) has much more bounce than it used to, acclimatisation is nowhere near as difficult as the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA). Anil Kumble’s form at the SCG was heartening as the Australian right-handers, apart from Mark Waugh, have generally struggled to score with any ease against the tall right-armer in India and this allows him to dominate the middle-order.

Therefore it is imperative that Javagal Srinath bowl well with the new ball and in Australia this means bringing the batsmen onto the front foot more often. The more balls that are played defensively off the front foot in Australia, the more chance the bowler has of producing a catch behind the wicket. For this reason Ajit Agarkar should open the bowling, as he’s an attacking swing bowler, while Venkatesh Prasad is a competent seamer, at ease with the older ball.

India’s best chance of winning in Australiais to bat first and score around four hundred in reasonable time and then take a couple of wickets with the new ball. Once that happens the Australian middle-order is less likely to dominate, although it has been greatly strengthened by Adam Gilchrist’s successful stroke play. Tendulkar has to put on a show in Adelaide that will convince his team Australia isn’t unbeatable, even though they are a very difficult side to defeat.