what last 'draw' test tells us about team india chances in australia...

thank you golandaaz of 'opinion of cricket'... his latest post "India v Australia - An Early Preview" made me write at sp after a long time...

i liked the way he concluded the post...

Not all wins are equal. Neither are losses. Some loses reveal a lot more than we are willing to read into. India's 4 Test match losses in England were not just shocking and humiliating but it also served an indicator of many collective missteps that no one is willing to talk about. Also a win-loss transaction is not a zero sum game. What England gained from the 4 wins, India lost far more than that. England simply confirmed their standing, India brushed the loss aside as "bad luck" and swept their real problems under the carpet. India are no longer as good as they were a year back and it will show in Australia.

specially the last line... to me india is not as good as year back was so profoundly revealed in last test against west indies team... we somehow managed a 'draw' while weakened west india team was further weakened by injury to their captain sammy... we managed draw against west indies which was reduced to only three front line bowlers and a part timer in samuels at home on such a pan cake of a pitch where a debutant, well almost, in ashwin who is not even a proper batsman scored almost run a ball...

imagine if sehwag not made those runs he did upfront at the pace only he scores... we either would have lost or played for a draw... and that's the pinching reality...

it seems that its written in the contracts of our illustrated seniors that run making has to be left to sehwag they can just carry on doing things at their own pace and comfort...

in england we suffered from this aspect more than anything... there was no one in the team that could have forced the issue or arrest the slump despite no one from our illustrated seniors looked out of form there...

at the twilight of their careers they need the push from upfront more than ever and its not a joke if india looks like batting on different pitch once sehwag departs... so our chances in australia lies how well sehwag plays for if he fails there we might have a repeat of england... in spite of having the experience of more than 37000 test runs and more than 100 centuries at our disposal between fab 3 at the other end and dhoni stubbornly refusing to improve as a test bat...