Proteas Beware!

India is now bad news to South Africa because thedisruptions are nearly overcome. They have had some tough cricket coming off abreak and will be ready to play closer to their potential. It will be anothercracker of a series which will feel easier for India because of the greatpressure the Aussies were able to apply.

I have not seen a real rapport between an Indianopening pair very often. Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra started something inAustralia but it was all about survival. There needs to be a close bond formedat the top between two men who would do anything for each other. A real joy foreach other's success and something that is palpable by the opposition. Atpresent they lose too many early wickets and don't recover easily.

Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman can be battingmasters but it does not seem to rub off onto others. It must intimidate becausethe development of great talent seems to take a long time. Yuvraj, Kaif andChopra would be three examples, though all three are good players. The seniorsmust assert themselves to nurture as well as get their own game right because inthis series they were a big part of the loss.

The quick bowlers are genuine and should travel theworld very effectively. To do this they must continue to get strong in relevantparts of their bodies and stay on the field.

There is a very good group of four or five ready to goand once they offer more than just support-play to the spinners at home, it willcome of age and possibly inspire many youngsters. Zaheer Khan matched theAustralian skill in the fourth Test and will learn plenty from that great effortand now needs some help. Overseas they should be as good as any attack in theworld but have not shown it yet.

Plenty was asked of the Indian spinners and theydelivered in patches. This did not surprise me as they were well short ofmatch-play in the lead up to this crunch series. This is where most of thetroubles could come for South Africa. India coming off a stunning two-day win,after such a tough series anything from here will seem light to Harbhajan andKumble.

Huge wicket-taking performance by Kumble had theAussies crumbling but allowed his career record to be analysed at length. What agreat player he has been with demeanour to go with it. He is one of the world'smost admired cricketers and at times slips under the radar of the superstars.

Good team spirit is certainly there in the camp but theinjury disruptions just detracted from the impenetrable team unity that was inAustralia. It especially needs to return under pressure.

What a culture this Australian team now offers newplayers. They have won the big series that they were after despite having toreplace their captain and Darren Lehmann, arguably their best player of spin.

Young players like Clarke, Katich and Hauritz enteredthe cauldron and performed.

Hayden and Langer's opening success hit a plateau thisseries even though it was not a disaster. They will surely love the green of theGabba and New Zealand may feel their return in their two-Test series startingnext Thursday.

The middle order performed brilliantly, whereby someonealways got it done. Katich, Clarke and Martyn were superb and when they werenot, it was Lehmann and Gilchrist who drove it home. This depth and continuousgood form is an area of invincibility that the Australians have had for a longtime. They are so difficult to keep down after a couple of early wickets.Gilchrist's gloves were fantastic in all but one match and his fourth Testrecovery in this department showed experience and class not to mention the topjob he did as captain.

Australia's quicks were right up there with the bestattack ever. They never let up, they seemed to own their plans and committed tothem. This year the plans were right having got them wrong in Australia lastsummer. It was the most impressive part of the team's play when no one expectedsuch impact and India's daunting batting lineup was nowhere.

Warne was battling against his deeds of the past inIndia and high expectations but did well. This was the best he had performedagainst India but was still fortunate to have such great support. He was attimes overused but that is certainly no crime and I thought the part-timers werewell underused as was shown by Clarke's stunner in Mumbai.

How much further can this Australian side go? They haveconquered their final frontier and it will be merely repetition from here on.They have a spirit which is second to none, which verges on love for each other.They are tough, uncompromising with tremendous pride in personal performance.

Rarely, possibly never ever, have we seen four of theirsenior batsmen out of touch together. With all that said, they are notunbeatable but you have to be spot on for long periods if you are to get themdown and keep them away.

I look forward to these next two series to see how bothteams return to Tests. India need to play more Tests in the future and willdevelop into a good successor to Australia. I also wish the India-Australiaclash could become and icon series every two years. Six years is too long towait for so much speculation, controversy and skill which was 2004.

PTI