Hyderabad Test....!

The Aussie skipper, Michael Clarke, might be ruing his decision of declaring their first innings by almost end of Day 1 in Hyderabad when the team score read 237 runs for the loss of nine wickets.

James Pattinson was batting on 1 and Xavier Doherty was yet to open his account. Not that these two batsmen, being No 10 and 11, would have created history, but then, given the fact that the Australian tail-enders show a lot of resilience, could have frustrated the Indian bowlers thru Day 1 and most part of the first session, atleast, on Day 2.

However, Clarke had his own calculations and, more often than not, he has been proved right.

Now let us focus some attention of Indian batting.

Virendra Sehwag and Murali Vijay did the honors of opening the batting for Team India. They remained unbeaten at stumps on Day 1 with 5 runs on the board, with Murali Vijay on 4 and Sehwag, yet to open his account.

Come Day 2, Virendra Sehwag faced 19 balls, scored 6 runs with the help of one boundary.

A delivery from Peter Siddle pitched 'a shade' outside the off-stump and was moving away from the batsman which, ideally Sehwag should have 'let go' to the 'keeper'. This he did, however, by allowing the ball to take an outside edge and was gleefully accepted by Mathew Wade behind the stumps.

It has been noticed for quite some time now that Sehwag's feet does not move, his reflexes have slowed down and his eye-hand coordination is abysmal. Come to the selectors, they would talk 'in length' about the 'rich experience' of Virendra Sehwag and the triple centuries scored by him.

Now what use is that experience if it cannot get converted into performance and does not add value to the team. Its time the selectors talked 'tough' and took a call on the continuation of Virendra Sehwag in the Indian dressing room.

Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara played sensible cricket and went on consolidating the innings. The first session on Day 2 produced only 49 runs and the proceedings were slow.

Post lunch, Vijay and Pujara shifted gears and both went on to score their respective centuries. It looked as if Pujara has got back to his scoring ways which he showed against the England series. The two ended the day with an unbeaten partnership of 295 runs from 510 deliveries, Vijay on 129 runs (288 deliveries) and Pujara on 162 runs (251 deliveries).

The strategy should be simple and clear for Day 3. Team India should look to play the entire day and score 600 runs. A lot of batting is yet come in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.......and not to leave out Ravchandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh (both of whom have 'test centuries' under their belt) and Bhuavenshwar Kumar who show-cased his batting talent at Chennai.

Pitch on Day 4 would turn viciously. This would be just about the time to unleash Ashwin, Harbhajan and Jadeja on the Aussies and pin them down.

The mammoth total of 600 runs, resulting in a lead of 363 runs, the turning pitch, the batting failure in the first innings et al would weigh heavily on the Aussies who might just  crumble.

In all earnest, expecting Team India to go to Mohali with the result of 2-0.

It is possible..........guys should keep their cool and play to a plan.

However, let us not underestimate the Aussies, since they have the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson, Phil Hughes, Michael Clarke and Mathew Wade who do not fail every time...........!

K Subramanian

03 March 2013