India need to play fearlessly

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The series-deciding third Test starts today and what a ripper it’s going to be. The ‘war of words’ has already heated up and that sets the ball rolling for the game.

The Waca in Perth has been a great venue for Test cricket, where players from all over the world come and try and do well.

A hundred here really enhances one’s reputation and he climbs up the ladder in the eyes of the cricketing world as someone who can play fast bowling well.

Just like those who travel to the sub-continent and take a lot of pride in scoring runs against the turning ball, it’s similar for batters coming from India to play well on this surface.

The ground has a history of producing quick pitches and the Indians did well to beat Australia in 2007 against a five-pronged pace attack and they will be taking a lot of confidence out of it this time.

The attack other then Ishant Sharma has changed quite a bit but they still have the ability to get 20 wickets in these conditions.

For all of us the biggest point of discussion was the wicket. The curator has made a lot of noise in the last few days of how quick it’s going to be.

The pitch was relaid in 2009 and the word is that it has got back the pace of old. Well we will all be keenly following that.

Even when India turned up in 2007 there was such talk but it wasn’t a very quick track. When I walked into the ground on Wednesday I saw a pitch well covered with a green layer of grass, and it looked pretty fresh as well.

Perth is a hot place and it will be interesting to see how much freshness the track still has at the start of the game.

It seemed looking at the pitch that it will have a fair bit of seam movement early on but will probably be not at full pace on Day 1 and will keep getting quicker as the match progresses.

When one stands in the middle and looks at the ground it doesn’t look very big, with the side boundaries being quite close.

For India it will be an opportunity to pull one back here but to do that they will have to fight the mental battle well. They must remember that it can’t get any worse.

The curve for them can only go up but that will happen only if they believe it can happen.

They need to get on the park clearing all the cobwebs in the head and go out there and play fearless cricket.