You are going DOWN......

"You are going Down..." seems like a line a WWF wrestler would pout to a competing wrestler. Well this blog has no intentions of discussing wrestling lingo.. not even wrestling for chrissake. I was just referring to Indian cricket team's upcoming tour of Australia, also referred to as a trip DOWN UNDER.

Well, Australia has been referred to as DOWN UNDER for as long as i can remember and as I kid i used to think that the reason was the performance of the visiting teams. Says a thing or two about Australian dominance doesn't it, when a kid starts thinking along these lines.

Anyways and thankfully i figured out the reason .. for Australia being referred to as DOWN UNDER. Apparently, Australia is only continent which lies completely below the equator in the southern hemipshere unlike Africa and South America... which have some parts above the equator. Southern Antartica is not considered, i guess, because in the globe, south antartica is shown contiguous extending into North Antartica... no one goes there anyways..... :)

I really hope we kick some arrogant Aussie butt. Batting wise - i believe Dravid should open with Jaffer. He comes one-down but is usually seen coming in within the first ten overs .. so i guess he might as well open. Infact, I believe facing your first ball in the tenth over is far more dificult than facing the first ball of the match. The bowler would be all pumped up having got the earlier wicket, he would have worked up a nice rhythm and pace till the tenth over....something we cannot say when the bowler is bowling his first ball, so dravid should open. No doubt about it.

So here's the lineup i would go for - Jaffer, Dravid, Laxman, Sachin, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble, Zaheer and RP Singh.

This makes Yuvraj bat around Sourav and Dhoni .. both lethal combinations. Laxman... needs time to settle and is solid against pace, so one-down is ideal for him. Pathan gives us batting depth plus third seamer option. Bowlingwise we would have Zaheer, RP, Pathan and ganguly as four medium pace options with spin from Kumble. And if we are bowling on the fifth day, Yuvi and Sachin can turn their arm around. So we have a semblance of a decent attack.

In Melbourne and Sydney, i would pick Bhajji over Pathan. These pitches have traditionally aided spin. Bhajji and Kumble on a fifth day pitch can make life difficult. Anyways on a spinning pitch, I believe we can pile up runs better than on a fast bouncy track, hence can do away with a extra batting option in Pathan and give bhajji a chance to tweak the life out of Aussies.

My predictions??...Well most experts are predicting a 3-0 or a 4-0 whitewash of the Indian team.. considering what happened to Sri Lanka who came with a bowling attack of Vaas, Malinga, Fernando and the great Murali. I don't want to make a blanket prediction.. but i would say that the first test is the key. If we avoid defeat in the first test.. i think we will win the series. Yes win the series . And Yes i know we are playing in Perth (supposedly the fastest pitch in Oz). Aussies have traditionally feeded on the fact that visiting teams lose the first match and are low in confidence or are under presssure thereon. Look at what happened in the last tour. We avoided losing in first match and result is there for all to see. Though the final score-line for the series read 1-1, i think bucknor and parthiv patel denied us a certain series victory.

And don't give me that 'See what happened to Lanka' Shit. Sri Lanka barring sangakarra have a batting line-up nowhere close to the quality of batting this Indian team has. In spite of that Sri Lanka almost chased 500 in the second innings (lost eventually by 97 runs). Lets assume for a fact, that the Aussies will pile-up 500+ score. They do that against any attack scoring at almost four an over. So our weak attack as most claim .. will not really hamper us. The key is can we put an equivalent total to match their 500+ score?. The answer is YES. This makes me believe that we stand in a decent chance against the aussies.

Anyways you'll never have me predicting against India :). Call it misplaced pride or whatever you like. Vande Mataram.

And I seriously hope.. before the last bowl of the series is bowled.... Kumble turns towards Ponting ....Rajnikant style.. and closes his fist and sticks this forefinger pointing in the downward direction and says.. ..guess what??

"You are going down....Mate". Amen to that.