A lull before the storm

Amazing is this silence from the Kangaroo camp... apart from the 7-0 prediction by Brett Lee of all people... there isnt much noise from the aussie camp which is strange. Probably all the big players are out now and a bunch of young blokes finding their feet in international cricket are busy concerntrating on their own game rather than offering advise to Indian players or predicting results... !!!!


Its unusual that this expectedly high voltage 7 match ODI series is about to begin and yet there is not enough cricket fever evident... yours truly is always excited at the prospect of India / Australia but the problem with some sports channels is they dont market the sport well... Neo is one such channel. Also blame the overdose of T-20 with the champions league hogging the lime light.


Regardless of all this the Men in Blue must keep their focus in place. This is their chance to firmly grab the no. 1 ranking. If all the batsmen remain fit throughout the series it would be a heck of a challenge for Australia. On flat pitches this Indian batting line up can be most devastating. Veeru's return is a great boost and he looked in very good touch and more importantly looked very hungry in the Champions league matches. Yuvi coming back adds a lot of fire power to the lower middle order and relieves Dhoni of a lot of burden.


The biggest challenge for India will be their seam bowling but the Indians need to keep chipping away wickets. It is most important that Dhoni thinks wickets and not saving runs. Apart from Ponting & Micheal Hussey this is largely a inexperience batting unit. Shane Watson is used to Indian conditions but his consistency will be tested here. If India can bowl well the batting should take care of itself.

Australia on the other hand have a very good pace attack in Lee, Siddle & Johnson with Watson as the back up but on these flat tracks against this quality batting the odds are in India's favour... I am sure all Indian batsman will line up to face Hauritz and the new spinner.

However the aussies seldom beat themselves and they will field way better than us.

Harbhajan and Amit Mishra will be the key bowlers for India in this series. Dhoni must look to attack with them and not use them as run saving bowlers.

Dhoni needs to always keep in mind this line while in the field : "Attack is the best form of defence, wickets always slow the run scoring !!!"

Never mind the silence at the moment but once at Vadodara when the teams square up... sparks will certainly fly... this is going to be one spicy encounter... the appetite is just whetted... !!!