Beleaguered India need a fresh kick-start

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It’s time to get back to India-Australia series and the fourth Test at Adelaide.

It has been an unexpected longer gap between the third and the fourth Test because the game at Perth finished within three days. Sometimes in these situations, when the chips are down, such gaps help.

It gives you time to look back at the faults happening, reorganise oneself mentally and give the individual as well as the team a jerk to make a fresh kick-start.

I hope the Indian team, both as individuals and as a unit, has made use of this gap in the best possible manner to get themselves re-focused. India will have a new captain for this Test and hopefully he can rejuvenate the team and get them to fire in the last Test.

India has everything to play for. Their thoughts will be bolstered by the sweet memories of Adelaide, where they have not lost to Australia for a long time. They were victorious in 2003-04 and continued to remain unbeaten in 2008 and where Virender Sehwag scored a belligerent hundred the last time he played on this ground.

Adelaide is considered to be the most batting friendly wicket with regard to the sub-continent outfits. There is true bounce for the batters to hit through the line and get value for shots. India will be without their regular captain, which means there will be a change in leadership and sometimes this sort of unusual change helps for the better.

There has been a lot of speculation about the Indian eleven at Adelaide. While there seems not much to change, except the forced sitting out of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and one spinner coming in for one of the four quicks. I would personally like Pragyan Ojha to be a part of the bowling attack.

Australians are generally not comfortable against left-arm spin bowling and maybe Ojha’s inclusion will lend that extra edge to the Indian bowling along with Zaheer Khan, who has been the pick of all.

There is a theory doing its round that Ashwin will make the grade ahead of Ojha because of his batting ability in order to strengthen the lower order in Dhoni’s absence. Now, that to me is a defensive mindset because if the top six can’t get you the desired runs, strengthening the lower order will not be of huge help.

Pitches in Australia have been greener then normal this time and Sehwag should wait till the morning of the game to decide the composition of the team.

If the grass is slightly less than the other grounds, two spinners will not be a bad option. Ishant Sharma has not been among the wickets and Pragyan Ojha will not be a bad option. India should pick its four best bowlers and play this Test differently.

Once again the onus for India will be the batting. The likes of Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman has played well in this ground but the challenge for them will be to produce another good knock here as they all have looked out of touch in this series. As great a player they have been when they were at their peak they also know that it takes one evening to be back to form again and they will have to use their entire pool of experience to get it going in this game.

There is enormous pressure on some of the players because of the team’s poor show in the last one year overseas and it will be important to see how they battle it out.

The Australians, on the other hand, are cracking the whip. The message is loud and clear from their side, they want a whitewash. At the start of the series the mood in the Aussie camp was not as it seems now. Every victory has bolstered their confidence and now when the series has been won they are ready to inflict the final punch.

The Australian batting has at times looked vulnerable, whether in Melbourne or in Perth on day two of the Test where they have lost wickets in bunches. This is one area the Indians will have to utilise if they want to hurt them early.