Look For Positives

The pressure is off, the expectations are low, soanything creditable will be a refreshing bonus for India in this contest inMumbai. Once again they have faltered under the weight of expectations eventhough this time they have really valid reasons for moderate performances as ateam.

Their injury toll has been horrific at an hour whenthey could least afford it. I doubt even Australia could expect to win withouttwo strike bowlers, their captain, star batsman who hasn't lifted a bat for twomonths against a team full of confidence and brilliance.

Form deserts a percentage of every team but to foreseeDravid and Laxman's misery was impossible and it has been damaging. Let's notfool ourselves, Australia were clear favourites in this series and the resulthas surprised no one.

New blood for the fourth Test without the stress ofworrying about the result should ensure some spark returns to the lifelessoutfit that has been India. Laxman nailed an amazing century in Sydney years agoafter the result mattered little so I hope he can do that again and have allothers follow, to provide an appropriate finale to this series.

For these reasons I think this will be the easiest ofthe four Tests for the Indians to play, unless they continue to worry abouttheir position in the team, continually watching over their shoulder forapproaching traffic.

Little is expected of newly-selected players and this is the best platform fromwhich to launch long careers. Many a career has started from outside the radarscreens. Go for it, play hard and enjoy the fight but demonstrate plenty ofability to perform the tasks, that are your job. To perform your job you need toknow what it is and this communication between the team prior to playing mustimprove. After discovering what it is that the team expects of a rookie, he mustaccept the responsibility of owning that role and making it his own so he canget close to performing it everyday. Once these aspects are crystal clear, evena youngster can set about enjoying his cricket.

Jason Gillespie this week referred to Australia'ssuperior planning for the series and it is that absolute clarity of role thathas allowed them to perform their facets of play magnificently as individuals.

Critics of the team's planning in Australia last summerwere continually refuted by the team saying they had been outplayed by arampaging India but everything else was spot on.

Interesting now there is an admission that maybe thosecritics were on to something at a time when things could have been remedied.Great to have clarity of role but there should also be a flexibility to adaptwhen things aren't so smooth and before critics feel the need to be involved.

This Australian team have addressed the issue of dead Tests and some pastaverage performances, but will need to muster some real guts to maintain thestellar standards of the first three Tests in India. The desire to remainunbeaten and performing to the current levels must come from the individual andnot a team meeting. One of Australia's great skills is their ability to treatevery single appearance for the country as special. With workloads increasing itwould be easy to develop a club mentality whereby an underachievement here orthere can be tolerated but tournaments and series are still won. The Australianteam is so much more than a club and efforts to approach perfection in everyouting are part and parcel of the philosophy.

India must see them as a little vulnerable though.Having experienced the relief of wrapping this one up so early, Australia haveto regroup all their toughness and aggression when they are feeling so content.

This game should see a better equipped Sachin Tendulkarat the wicket. All the questions he would've been asking himself about theinjury withstanding five days and how he would feel at the crease have beenanswered. It is great credit to the man that as soon as he could lift a bat hemade himself available knowing how short of form he was going to be. Time in themiddle is crucial to batting form and he had none of it for three months.

In 2001 it was one bowler and a classy batting order which saw India beatAustralia in the series. This year India have had neither for long enough andHarbhajan's absence from Nagpur was a killer blow. If India are to own theirindividual roles then they must find some consistent performers who spendquality time in the team. It is not acceptable to see injured unavailableplayers sitting around with the team during home Tests. This merely makes itharder for new blood to fully commit to their roles which need to be based onsimplicity and repetition.

Unavailable players must return home where they canreassess their desire to perform for their country from an appropriate distance,not feel as if they are still part of it - captain or not.

PTI