Enticing India-Australia series could be overwhelmed by Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar scored only 112 runs against England before Christmas but is back for more against Australia. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

There is a whiff of deja vu about the build-up to the Test series between India and Australia, which starts on Friday morning. It was only last November when England breezed into Ahmedabad, declaring that they would stick to their original plans of playing a solitary spinner, Graeme Swann, a balance of attack they have always preferred, albeit on a surface devoid of live grass. Then they were thrashed by nine wickets. Then they had a rethink ? and a most productive one it was, too.

Now the Australians are in Chennai with a four-Test series on the horizon and they are bullish. Their coach, Mickey Arthur, sounding more Australian than the Australians, has declared "we'll play against their spinners aggressively". He has already indicated the make-up of his side.

Nathan Lyon will be the lone spinner alongside three pacemen and a fast-bowling all-rounder, Moises Henriques, who is set to make his debut. We do not know the India side yet. But rest assured they will have three spinners in their line-up. It is hard to imagine the Chennai groundsman watering his pitch in the next 24 hours.

For Englishmen looking on, this is an unfamiliar Australia side ? for the moment. We will know most of them intimately soon given that there are going to be three Ashes series within the next three years. In any case we always have to keep an eye on the Aussies, wherever they are. This series offers a measure of the standing of the two nations, not necessarily an accurate one but an irresistible one. England managed to win 2-1 in India before Christmas. How will the Australians do now? The sneaking suspicion is: not quite so well.

There is no longer Ricky Ponting in the Australia side and no Mike Hussey.

Michael Clarke stands out like a beacon at No5; he has batted quite brilliantly since his appointment as captain. Often he has had to in order to keep his side in the game. At the top of the order David Warner, converted one-day basher but a rare talent, is preparing to bat with a splint on a thumb. Alongside him Ed Cowan blocks diligently; then there is Phillip Hughes, humbled in England in 2009 but now remodelled and renascent.

Shane Watson, the chameleon, has another role. The erstwhile all-rounder turned belligerent opening batsman is for this series a non-bowling No4. He is now the vice-captain; he can look sublime at the crease; but he still averages only 37 in Test cricket. At the age of 31, he is still searching for his identity as a Test cricketer.

Matthew Wade is at No6; like Adam Gilchrist before him he is a wonderfully aggressive keeper/left-handed batsman. Yet the awesome Gilchrist batted at No7. That is where Henriques, probably the first Portuguese-born Test cricketer ? his parents moved to Sydney when Moises was 18 months old ? is likely to bat.

The burden on Lyon, the off-spinner and the twelfth tweaker to be tried by Australia since the retirement of Shane Warne, will be immense. He has done well in his 19 Tests, taking 61 wickets at 32 apiece. Clearly he is a conscientious and improving spinner. Equally clearly he is no Warne; he is no Swann either. But he is the best bet.

Australia's determination to stick with the solitary spinner route is, in fact, more understandable than England's decision in November.

Alastair Cook had a credible alternative in Monty Panesar, whom he soon selected after the Ahmedabad defeat. The options for Clarke are bleaker and highlighted by the fact that Australia originally shipped out spinners galore to India before this Test. They have Xavier Doherty there; they took Ashton Agar, a 19-year-old who had played just two games for Western Australia (though he has now gone back home) plus the part-timers Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell. Australia are still thrashing around for their spinners.

For this reason India will surely stick to the plan that did not work so well against England. They will rely on their spinners (two from Pragyan Ojha, Ravi Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, plus Ravindra Jadeja) for their wickets even though they were chastened by English batsmen not so long ago.

And their runs? This is where the sense of deja vu returns. Gautam Gambhir has been dropped. From the old guard Virender Sehwag survives. And then there is Sachin Tendulkar, whom they cannot drop. All through the series against England, in which Tendulkar scored only 112 runs and a solitary half-century, we wondered when he would go. We waited in vain for a signature innings to allow him to bid farewell with a smile. All that speculation and all those half-penned cricketing epitaphs resurface in a soap opera that threatens to diminish a most intriguing series for Indians, Australians and Ashes-pondering neutrals.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/feb/20/india-australia-first-test-chennai

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