ADELAIDE, DECEMBER 15: When Shane Warne returned from Australia's tour of India last year, he said he had nightmares of how Sachin Tendulkar had savaged him. Arguably the greatest leg-spinner in the history of the game, the blonde Aussie has salvaged some of his wounded pride during the first cricket Test between his team and India which ended in a comprehensive defeat for the visitors here yesterday.Before he bowled in this Test, Warne had dismal figures of 21 wickets for 1,188 runs in 15 Tests and one-dayers against India. In the Adelaide Test, he took six for 113 in the two innings.Warne's figures, however, do not tell the full story. In the first innings, he was lucky to get Tendulkar thanks to a wrong decision by the local umpire Daryll harper. But, he not only kept Tendulkar restrained, he didn't allow two other top batsmen in the world - Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - to dominate him.The reasons are two-fold - one he is back at his best and the other, the Indian batsmen were timid in their approach.In India, they hit him against the spin and played across the line. In the first Test, the approach of the Indians was altogether different. Dravid was standing much beyond the legstump to counter his big turners. But, it was of no help.Dravid was countering Warne's tendency to bowl on the batsmen's pads and then curl the ball towards the slips. Worse, the burly leg-spinner tries to get the ball to turn from behind the right-hander's back and bowl him neck and crop like he did to MSK Prasad in India's first innings.Warne is different from other leggies in that he doesn't bowl middle and off-stump line. He bowls on the leg-stump, mostly beyond leg-stump and still has batsmen completely baffled.Sunil Gavaskar recounts how when he was a stop-gap manager of the Indian team for a couple of matches in Sharjah in 1994, he had told the boys not to come into the dressing room if they were out to a Warne flipper.``My idea was just to let the boys know they were Indians and they should not be getting out to a leg-spinner,'' he said.The Indians will need to revert to the methods they employed earlier - to hit him against the spin and play across the line to his big leg breaks.If they don't do it, and do it fast, they are nothing but sitting ducks to the blonde magician.The Indians can expect a noisy, boisterous home crowd behind him when Warne takes the field in the Melbourne Test on Boxing Day, just seven short of overtaking Dennis Lillee's 355 wickets and becoming the best in Australia's cricket history.Bob Simpson, former Australian captain and coach, feels if he can keep his keenness and fitness and everything else, he will be a 400 wicket-taker.New Zealand's Richard Hadlee is of the opinion Warne has the potential to end up as a 500-wicket plus bowler.Warne has suffered tendonitis in his bowling shoulder through over-use and been operated upon, limiting his variations, especially his improving googly. But his big-spinning leg-break remains his most potent weapon.He has survived Tendulkar onslaught, injuries, bookies association and volcanic confrontations with opponents and team-mates alike.He survived an early slump in the World Cup this summer to end up as Australia's most potent weapon in the winning campaign.He just can't keep his name out of the headlines. For the 300-plus wickets against his name, there's the bookie scandal in his cupboard. For that ball to Mike Gatting, there's that $200,000 Australian (about Rs 55 lakh) nicotine patch. For his World Cup heroics, there's his Ashes balcony gyrations.Gavaskar feels Shane Warne is special. He is a freak, the batting legend, says adding, it is not always easy to come down the track to him since he doesn't flight the ball as often and keeps the loop low. It is some wonder he still manages to extract such a huge turn.His captain Steve Waugh says he looks healthy and strong and looking as good as he has ever done during his entire career.
