Indian problems difficult than fixing any Y2K bugs

Indian problems difficult than fixing any Y2K bugs
IAN CHAPPELL

India suffered another comprehensive defeat at the hands of a rampant Australian side and there must now be some doubt about their ability to compete at the SCG. As if India didn't have enough problems at the top of the order, Sadogopan Ramesh is now in doubt for the third Test and this means the Australian bowlers will probably again be able to harass the talented middle-order batting with a reasonably new cherry.

On the final day at the MCG, Ramesh made every effort to hold the Australians at bay, but the pain from his cracked thumb was obviously too great to allow him to bat on. This may have looked like an advantage to Australia, but the fact that it brought Sachin Tendulkar to the crease early could've been looked upon as a bonus for India.

Tendulkar is such a dominant player that he makes it easier for the player at the other end and also allows the other batsmen in the dressing room to breathe a little easier. However, a relentless Australian attack never allowed Tendulkar any freedom and eventually any thoughts of a fighting draw were choked off.

Rahul Dravid is a start-stop player; he has periods where he scores regularly and then the runs dry up completely and that is when he is in danger of losing his wicket. It's almost as though during those non-scoring periods, he's batting in the nets where runs don't matter. Dravid has to get out of this bad habit as it brought about his dismissal again; a loose delivery down leg-side from Brett Lee just clipping his glove on the way through to Adam Gilchrist.

This left Saurav Ganguly as Tendulkar's main ally in the battle for survival. Despite being a little uncomfortable against the pace of Lee, he survived until the stroke of lunch when he played a shot that suggested he had food on his mind. Although on second thoughts, he stood at the crease for so long after knocking the ball onto his stumps, there was every chance all the lunch would've been devoured by the time he reached the table. Ganguly is a talented player, but he allows himself to be out-psyched by the Australians and now that they have asserted their superiority, it is going to take great mental strength to reverse the trend.

Tendulkar's support had been substantially diminished, as there is a great disparity between the three most talented batsmen and the rest. For some inexplicable reason this caused Tendulkar to go into his shell, a dangerous ploy against a thoughtful Shane Warne bowling with lots of confidence. The artful leg-spinner had regularly pitched around leg stump in an attempt to worry his quarry and then he re-directed the attack to off-stump, before finally delivering an over-spinner on middle stump. Tendulkar failed to read the delivery as well as declining play at it and his stout resistance had come to an abrupt end.

In this series Tendulkar has batted very well, but in a completely different manner to the way he attacked the Australians on their tour of India. The reasons could be two fold. In this series Glenn McGrath is in the opposition and he has a tendency to take early wickets and also India are much more frail at the top of the order, which means Tendulkar is usually fighting a rearguard action. This explains why Australia has been able to dominate India, while Tendulkar is having a successful series.

By scoring his seventh century as captain in this match Tendulkar has shown that the captaincy doesn't have an adverse affect on his batting. However, the sub-standard play of some of his team-mates is likely to have a debilitating affect on an extremely competitive cricketer if it continues for too long. India is badly in need of another top-class spinner and fast bowler and most importantly a reliable pair of opening batsmen. In addition, they have to find some fieldsmen in front of the wicket who have the anticipation to keep the pressure on the batsmen when the bowlers are making runs hard to come by. These are problems that are more difficult to fix than any Y2K bugs and the New Year looks bleak for India.