India Down Under 2007-08

Yet another Indian cricket series has started and this time it is the much awaited series India Down Under (Down Under is a colloquialism referring to things Australia, because in a world map the country Australia is situated down south under all other countries and hence the expression.) A cricket tour by the Indian team to Australia has always evoked great expectation and interest among the masses for various reasons. There is always a great pleasure in finding out how the great Indian batting line up face the all powerful Australian attack. Most often than not a test match between India and Australia is considered as rendezvous where there will be a great competition between the Indian batsmen and the Aussie bowlers. Even the players consider this as a perfect venue to test their playing skills and mental abilities. Also, of late, there has been a common perception that India is perhaps the only team in the world who holds the strength to challenge the Aussie domination in cricket. Two of the recent Twenty20 wins by India over Australia has strengthened such a view as well.

This series is undoubtedly a historic one because of one most prominent reason and it is that this is going to be the last series down under for not only one of the greatest batsmen of all times - Sachin Tendulkar, but also for the other greats of the game like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and the Very Very Special (VVS) Laxman. So the series is watched closely by the cricket lovers all over the world. It had always been a great feeling to watch all these great players fighting it out at the MCGs and the SCGs and the WACAs. But as all good things have to come to an end at some point of time, this has also reached the final phase. It is quite disheartening to understand that we wont be able to see these great men at work again there in Australia.

This is also a golden opportunity to the cricket fraternity in India to gauge the efficiency of some of the young members of the Indian Cricket team like Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. These young men are going to be the torch bearers of Indian cricket for the years to come. Australia is a place where the technique and skill of a player is tested to its fullest and it is more so when we consider the case of a batsman. It has to be seen whether the technique and batting skills of these young guns match with that of their elder team mates.

When this article is being written, the first test at MCG has already begun. It is the customary Boxing Day test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria, which is incidentally the home ground of the legendary leg spinner Shane Warne. We are certainly missing this genius Victorian this time around and this series can certainly be called the beginning of the post-Warne India-Australia clash down under. Decades and centuries are often named after legendary human beings who had written their names in the annals of the history and Shane Warne is undoubtedly one of the legends of the game and therefore it is only appropriate to to term this as post-Warne era.

The second and third tests will be played at Sydney and Adelaide respectively and Adelaide is certainly the ground where the Indians are having good memories of the win in the last series played during 2003-04. The wonderful innings played by Rahul Dravid gave us a great victory to cherish and the Indians would do good to reiterate that memorable performance. Also, one could scarcely forget the Sydney match of that series which incidentally was the last match of another great player Steve Waugh. Sachin Tendulkar's very hard fought double century is still quite alive in the minds of all cricket lovers.

So altogether this series is expected to be yet another cracker of a series with a lot of things at stake for the Indians especially the senior pros of the team as this is going to be their last tour down under. Let us all keep our fingers crossed and wait for a great series with a lot of fair fight, flair and fire.