> India Vs Australia, 2007 - 2008 First Test Match, Melbourne

The time has come for the great 5 (Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble) of the Indian cricket team to deliver in what would be their carrier's biggest test considering the fact that they are in the fag end of their careers

Venue : Melbourne, Australia
Date : Dec 26 -30, 2007

Melbourne has been raining for the past few days and one must remember that even the practice match against Victoria was not played completely.

Now with little match practice(actually NOTHING at all ) the indians are going into the first test with just PEP talk

Here are some headliners for the first match.

News from the indian camp
1. Dravid to open the innings with jaffer. This allows the 'Sixer King' (yuvi has been referred like that of late ) into the team to play his successive test match. This also means that Sehwag and karthik would sit on the bench.

2. "India has been watching the videos of the aussies" - Kumble. I hope they watched the clippings of cricket and nothing else

3. "If you give them an inch, they will walk all over you" Laxman. Hope indians raise their game

some news from the aussie camp
4. Johnson looks all set to play the first test match. He has been consistently doing well against the indians. Now aussies will be a confused lot and will have to make a decision in their bowling department. With lee and tait confirmed to play, they will have to decide to go for 2 more pacers or 1 pace and 1 spin option. Looks as if hogg might play. So, it has to be either johnson or stuart clarke and both are scary

5. "Quiet month leaves Symonds hungry" No not hungry for food

6. Team tired of criticism - Gilchrist Now why would warne speak such things? Idiots, he himself is picking buchanan. one of the those who brought in a lot to this aussie team .

some news regarding the stadium

7. Racist fans at MCG face life bans Cameras and Police personnel will have a check on the fans. Now inspite of this, i am sure lot will be spoken about in the media

8. Green top unlikely at MCG, says curator
Weather is pretty bad
Not to seam as expected
I am not sure if the match would even be played at all.

TEAM INFORMATION
Indian Team (Expected)
Jaffer, Dravid, Laxman, Sachin, Sourav, yuvi, Dhoni(+), Pathan, Kumble(*), Zaheer, RP Singh

Australian Team (Expected)
Hayden, Jaques, Ponting(*), Clarke, Symmonds, Hussey, Gilchrist(+), Hogg, Brett lee, Tait, Johnson and 12th man Clarke

To sum up
* If the aussies are given even 3 days it would be enough to go 1 up in the series.
* Indians lack match practice

I would give Indians a chance if they play up to their potential. This batting line up is one of the strongest On PAPER . Dhoni is to prove his talent in this form the game.

A great match ahead. Enjoy you folks

Confirmed batting lineup

Jaffer
Dravid
VVS Laxman
Sachin Tendulkar
Yuvraj Singh
Sourav Ganguly
Dhoni

^^ On paper this looks like a combination that should play for full 5 days

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Safin's Signature:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw

^^Everything looks better on paper. You'll realize that when you read out a speech and everyone hates it.

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Agnel's Signature:

Sehwag has meanwhile said in an interview that "Given a chance he will come all guns blazing"


Give him a break guys, its his toy gun

_______________________________________
Safin's Signature:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw

The doc just unzipped Sehwag

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Agnel's Signature:

Okay, the series is kicking off!

Ponting won the toss and aussies are batting first.
Hogg is in and tait misses out.

In the Indian camp, Dravid opens the innings with jaffer.
Ishant sharma misses out, so 2 pacers and 2 spinners.

THE TEAMS

Australia squad
RT Ponting, AC Gilchrist, SR Clark, MJ Clarke, ML Hayden, GB Hogg, MEK Hussey, PA Jaques, MG Johnson, B Lee, A Symonds

India squad
A Kumble, MS Dhoni, R Dravid, SC Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, W Jaffer, , Z Khan, VVS Laxman, RP Singh, SR Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh

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Agnel's Signature: