They are here - that team everyone loves to host - Australia.
There's something about an Australian series which lifts the game and spectators...at least me. Even if it is a one-day series, there is no difference in how they go about it. That makes it all a familiar cricketing environment I am comfortable with.
The words begin to flow, pressure tactics begin early; interesting comments come up in response/reaction from the home side: then the stage is set - the spectator waits to see who backs up their words. And the chess moves continue if by chance the series turns out closer than anticipated.
Ricky Ponting believes Australia should dominate this series, and he has some valid reasons to do so.
Even in the best of times, with the most meticulous preparation, Australia are hard to beat, especially over seven matches. India are anything but in that situation. No-one should be surprised if the results reflect this
Ricky Ponting Australia Cricket Captain
Meanwhile, Harbhajan, Uthappa and Sreesanth among others don't quite agree with him.
We can only wait and watch.
Australia haven't really spoken about targetting specific opposition players of late. Since Glenda retired that aspect's been history. Now they probably work through their plans with their coach and backroom boys.
Australia always bring with them a brand of cricket I like - aggressive and never-say-die. I don't remember an Australian team that touched left these shores which didn't vow to return and come good. And that's after a hard fought series. They'd return with the same or heightened intensity and give us all a great game of cricket all over again.
Ricky Ponting did what many other glorious captains of Australia couldn't for four decades - he won a test series in India. He must believe this is his yard, so to speak. And there are these upstarts to deal with. It has already raised the bar for the series - how I wish now it were a complete one...test matches and all! Just the right atmosphere too. Here's India fresh with a test series win in England and a limited overs tournament win, and there's Ricky coming in with the same vigour he did the year he won in India.
Uncle J Rod has given us a reasonably clear picture about Voges and Hopes. Friends at 606 too have added to that. The rest are known entities. We know now what to expect - a great series with no quarters given or asked for!
Get ready!
5 comments:
It was Gilchrist and not Ponting who captured the "Final Frontier".
You are right in many ways - Gilly was standing in for Ponting in the first three tests and it was there that Australia won the series. The only match Ponting captained and played in, in that series, Australia lost.
But Gilly was standing in for all practical purposes.
In a similar context, Ganguly's absence from the first two tests in Pakistan with Dravid standing in are still filed away as wins under his portfolio. The difference is Ganguly came back for the last test and won it while Ponting didn't. So in a way that might be OK while one questions if Ponting actually breached the Final Frontier.
Precisely, only because Ponting did not play in a game when the series was alive I would hesitate to give him credit
I don't know how it goes with stand-in captains, but if the regular captain manages to play even one test in the series, he somewhow ends up with all the official credit other than what the scorecard-match records show.
That's a tough one for stand-ins to swallow but that's how it is.
Individually, maybe that counts in their personal kitty...but Golandaaz, maybe Ricky is conscious of this teeny-weeny anomaly and it rankles still.
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