The Indians capitulated, rather meekly by 337 runs, to the Australians in the Boxing Day test match in Melbourne. If they had played another inning, they would have still have lost. Such was the domination by the Australians.
The day India landed in Melbourne, Harbhajan Singh was graceful enough to talk to the media. He made some remarks stating that India would want to see Brad Hogg play in the test matches, that they would get after him and hit him out of the attack and that he was not good enough spin bowler. Well, Hogg responded by getting Sourav Ganguly, the best batsman in the Indian team on current form, in both the innings. Harbhajan Singh, ended up with a below-par performance(an understatement!!) in the match. This is what separates Australia & other teams. Teams like India, they are very good at Talking the Talk. But, when it comes to Walking the Walk, they get found out almost always.
The MCG pitch, was more sub-continental in nature and it was as if India was playing in Bangalore rather than Melbourne. But, our batting still collapsed. Why? Its inexplicable. Not even the batsmen would have the answers. There are three things which separate Australia from India. Skills, Temperament & Desire to Win. I think they lacked all these ingredients.
So, here we are, 0-1 down with Sydney, Perth & Adelaide to go. As far as India is concerned, they need to get in Sehwag into the side. I think the selectors did a good job heeding to Ian Chappell's advice and got him into the squad. If there is a batsman who can put the fear into Australian bowlers, it is him. Agreed that he is not in good form, but he is a better bet than a Yuvraj who is not troubling the scorers much anyways. Dravid, has sacrificed himself for far too long in the interests of the team. He shouldn't be messed around with and should come in his usual position at one down. Yuvraj needs to carry the drinks until he can prove that he is a good enough player in test arena. But, he cannot be given too many chances in a series like this when you need all your best batsmen playing at their best. Yuvraj, sadly, does not fit into the picture here. Sehwag, if he fails, will not make such a big difference because the others are anyways, not doing much. But, if he fires like he did last time in Australia, we could see bit of a fight from the Indians.Tough situations demand tough decisions and India are in much more than just a spot of bother at the moment.
