India Favorites To Reclaim Border-Gavaskar Trophy

By Gaurang
February 18 2013

India surrendered the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in humiliating fashion in Australia last time, not only losing 0-4 in the four Test series, but losing without much of a fight and by huge margins. Yet back on their home turf India are clearly favorites to reclaim the trophy.

There are many reasons for this optimism among Indian fans. The first is that the pitches are likely to be much more to their liking than the bouncy, seam friendly conditions they encountered in Australia last year. The wickets Clarke and his men are likely to face in India are going to be spin friendly for sure.

The second reason for optimism about India's prospects is that Australia have a very, very mediocre spin bowling attack. Nathan Lyon, their lead spinner, is no better than about half a dozen off spinners plying their trade in Indian Domestic cricket, from Jalaj Saxena to Prvez Rassol. The less said about his supporting cast the better. This is a far cry from the potent spin duo that England had when they recently turned the tables on Dhoni and his men and won a series in India for the first time in nearly three decades.

Thirdly, the Australian batting, except for captain Michael Clarke, who btw, is supposedly hampered by a sore hamstring, is as inexperienced as any Australian side that has ever visited India. Australia have no other players to compare with Jonathan Trott, Alistair Cook, Kevin Pietersen or Ian Bell in terms of experience and class. Now there is news that Australia's answer to Virender Sehwag, David Warner, is also injured, which further weakens the Australian batting at least for the first Test, if not the series. The loss of Michael Hussey, who retired recently, has left a big hole in the lower middle order, a hole that is unlikely to be adequately filled by the likes of Usman Khwaja or Moises Henriques.

The only aspect of this Australian team that is strong, at least on paper, is the pace bowling department. With a battery of fast men, both right and left armed, they posses much more firepower than India in this regard. However, the pitches are likely to defang them to a large extent. In the past successful overseas bowlers have used sheer pace, and a combination of new ball and reverse swing to nevertheless prove successful on Indian pitches. Australia's young pace attack will have to show that they not only have the pace, but the skills to take wickets in decidely unfriendly conditions. In fact how the pace attack goes will to a significant level determine if the Australians have any chance of retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

From the Indian side things don't look much different than they did against England. In fact the loss of Zaheer Khan with the new ball has weakened India's already weak pace department, and the spin attack is the same one that got outbowled by Monty Panesar and Greame Swann recently. The reason they are favorites is not so much that they have improved, but rather that the visitors are of a lesser calibre than the English team that won 2-1. The other thing that is different is that the Indian team is not cocky and overconfident this time. Also, as this tour is late in the Indian cricket season, the Indian players have all had a lot of games to get into the groove. This is especially true of Sachin Tendulkar who has been scoring almost at will in the Indian domestic first class season. A welcome sign for not only his fans but for the Indian team. One can thus expect India to prevail either by 2-0 or maybe a 2-1 margin. Anything less, and it will be truly shocking result, one that should cause some very clear-headed soul searching about the future of the Indian Test team, especially in light of the overseas tours that follow.

India Favorites To Reclaim Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Posted by: Indian Cricket Fever (IP Logged)

Date: 18/02/2013 15:44

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:04:03:22:04:54 by Birbal.