WAC(A)ked Out

I have absolutely no intention of writing about the game at WACA. It was almost a replay of SCG, except that this time it was bludgeoning Warner who took the game away from India. Whatever the Indians have been saying about Sehwag, was done to them by Warner. Other than that, the fifer for Umesh Yadav was a just reward for some good bowling on this tour. Nothing else deserves any space on this blog.

Instead I am going to play out the possibilities from here on. Let us see how many of these come true.

1. India will make changes at Adelaide and bring in Rohit and Ojha. The nature of the wicket would mean that both of them would be successful and that would be a big slap on the captain’s face, who went with four supposedly fast bowlers at WACA.
2. I have a feeling that Duncan Fletcher would be the scapegoat for the failures on the last two tours. MSD will be provided a smooth exit on his own terms. I have a feeling that Sreekanth would also be eased out.
3. VVS and Rahul Dravid will announce their retirement after the tour. They will probably get a last farewell test at home.
4. Sachin would play in the Tri series because he is the sort of person who would like to come back with his head held high.
5. The team for ODI, will bring in the usual suspects who have done nothing to prove their fitness or form. I see Raina, Murali Vijay, Yuvraj, Munaf, Praveen Kumar coming back. I do not see any change in the result. We would possibly be the third team.

A word on MSD's horrible captaincy this series. When he selected 4 quickies, I am sure he did not account for the fact that he has to get 90 overs in a day from them. That means rouchly 20 overs per bowler per day. If one of them went for runs, his options were exposed. Also he ran the risk of over rates, which has now become reality.

In the Australian innings, when they were 8 down, instead of calling Ishant to pair up with Yadav, he threw the ball at Sehwag. Why not try to warp up an innings and curtail the lead?


Finally, in the second innings I would have tried something different to upset the Aussie plans. Like asking Dravid to open, have VVS coming in at three and use Viru down the order. That would have forced Clarke to use Siddle early on to go after Dravid and may be would have produced something different. He has fixed plans and set moves.  He is not innovating like he used to do earlier.