About tomorrow's test match

Tomorrow begins the series finale of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy between India and Australia. Gautam Gambhir, the stylish southpaw is most likely to miss out on this rubber due to his "little incident" with Shane Watson. This might well prove to be costly for a team with too many distractions already in it. This is Saurav Ganguly's last test match. V.V.S. Laxman is set to get into the ground as a player who has played a 100 test matches for his country. And the biggest of all. India has lost its biggest weapon as far as bowling goes. Anil Kumble is not playing. Above all, Gautam Gambhir too has done himself in by elbowing Shane Watson.

One might tend to think that Australians have the edge over India due to all the reasons and a resilient batting display in the last match. But deeper analysis puts this forward. Australians' lack of penetration in the bowling has been exposed. It has gone to an extent where Indian media has made a mockery out of an attack which boasts of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson, all match winners in the real sense of the word. All the cricketing brains have boiled it down to Aussie's lack of a quality spinner.

Is that all Australia lack? Is it just a spinner? Was Shane Warne just a spinner for the Aussies? Warne is a player who has more than 2000 runs to his name. He has a 100 catches to his name. He was a more than a tail ender. He could pluck catches out of thin air. Warne was not just a tweaker who attacked all the time. He could stem the flow of runs when needed too. This being said, his record in India has always remained below par. He averages over 40 a wicket here. He has always been a meat and drink bowler for India. But his all round capabilities is what Australians are missing. They have two players who can fill in his shoes, not as a spinner but as a bowling all rounder, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson. But Lee has failed with the ball while Johnson has failed with the bat. If one of them had clicked, the Aussies could have fielded in a more "regular" spinner Jason Krejza. This would have given them much more of a flexibility in their attack and taken a lot out of the shoulders of part timers Michael Clarke and Cameron White.

Comparing both the situations one would want to be in the side where bowlers can bowl the opposition out twice in a test match. That side clearly is India. So logically India should not lose to the Aussies in the forthcoming test. But as we all know, India can always be beaten and Australia is the strongest team in the world. So who is your money on? The new young turk (India) or the old warlord (Australia)?

Arjun Calidas