India should stick to the three pronged pace attack

The Indians were looking very confident at Bangalore though not at the moment when they lost four early wickets. Those two partnerships between Dravid and Shewag & Dravid and Dahiya pulled us out of trouble. Till that time the Indian camp didn't look very confident; I should know since I was there at very close quarters. Later Bevan and Hayden were going strong and it was the last throw of the dice when Ganguly bowled and got Bevan out. In ODIs the rub of the green is very important as you've seen in the first game itself, if a little luck was in their favour Australia would have still had a chance of scoring 315 because the wicket was very good.

I don't think Harbhajan Singh will make an impression in this ODI series. He can only do so if the conditions are right, if he can bowl to an attacking field. In the normal course of a game, the spinners come into play after 15 overs when the fieldsmen are spread out. Under these conditions, I don't think he can make any impact. His only chance would be if the batsmen are trying to sweep and miss. Shewag bowled well but the rub of the green was in his favour. If you're looking for a fifth bowler he may serve that purpose but I'd rather rate him a better batsman.

I happened to bounce into Shane Warne in Bangalore and we had a discussion. He just wanted to find out where he was going wrong and I was of the opinion that his arm was not coming up, because on Indian wickets if you bowl roundarm the ball doesn't even bounce, it squats up. For a couple of overs he bowled with a higher arm action in the nets and looked a little better. But he's still no patch on the old Shane Warne.

I did meet some of the Indian players also, the only two with whom I talked a little in depth were VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar. I congratulated Sachin on his bowling and he revealed that the skin on his spinning finger had peeled off a bit, which he's not used to, and therefore he was not too consistent. But he's very happy about his performance as a bowler.

Matthew Hayden has been in tremendous form over the last few weeks and I think India will find it very difficult to contain him in the ODIs. If at all India have a chance of taking him out, they must do it in the early stages. Once the 15 overs are gone there's no way the Indian bowlers can put pressure on him unless we have a spinner who can turn the ball across his bat, who can bowl on leg stump and take the ball to first slip. If you have a bowler like that, then you can pose problems. Otherwise with a spread out field, Hayden feels far more comfortable taking singles and twos and in between, getting the boundaries.

I believe that India should stick to the three pronged pace attack they played at Bangalore. I have always maintained that if we have spinners, they have to turn the ball period. I'd rather have two spinners who can turn the ball viciously across the bat and maintain a good length. Unless you have two such bowlers, there's no point in going with spin as our main strength. Under the circumstances, Srinath, Agarkar and Zaheer are bowling well and I'd rather go on the same lines, with other bowlers like Sachin coming into play.

Ganguly looks a little concerned about his batting. The Australians have sorted him out. They know how to attack him by bowling just around off stump and moving away because of his tendency to chase the ball. But I think the Australians will be really concerned about Sachin Tendulkar. Until he got run out at Bangalore, the way he was playing was magic. It was such a pity because there were two comfortable runs there. I don't know what made Laxman stay back. Sachin is a genius, what more can I say. That's whom the Australians are really scared of.