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The start of a massive year for Australian cricket starts in a notoriously difficult place, the final frontier, India. Its going to be dry, dusty, slow and low, all the things we love about cricket on the subcontinent. Australia will take heart in the thumping they inflicted on the Indians over here a few summers ago and the relative ease with which England handled the Indian spinners but we are all well versed in the struggles our own batsman have against the turning ball.
The two teams meet in a relatively similar state, past champions haven't been replaced and although good players have been found, for India in the batting and Australia's fast bowlers it still remains to be seen how they will go long term on the international stage.
The Aussies named their lineup a few days out from the test, not surprisingly playing to our fast bowling strength, the impressive Bird has missed the XI for the reverse swinging Mitch Starc and bowling all rounder Henriques debuts at 7 after impressing in the warm up fixtures
Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Ed Cowan, 3 Phillip Hughes, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Matthew Wade (wk), 7 Moises Henriques, 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 James Pattinson, 11 Nathan Lyon
India will look to take advantage of Australia's fragility against spin, the only team news coming out is that Harbhajhan Singh will play test number 100 after an extended period outside the team. Ishant Sharma looks to be the lone seamer in a spin heavy attack
India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 M Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Ravindra Jadeja/Ajinkya Rahane, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Pragyan Ojha
(stolen from cricinfo)
Not a blade of grass on the Chennai wicket, it should be turning from ball one, the toss is huge as I wouldn't want to be chasing any sort of total. Smart money is on India at home, especially with the limited preparation some of our batsman have had.
The two teams meet in a relatively similar state, past champions haven't been replaced and although good players have been found, for India in the batting and Australia's fast bowlers it still remains to be seen how they will go long term on the international stage.
The Aussies named their lineup a few days out from the test, not surprisingly playing to our fast bowling strength, the impressive Bird has missed the XI for the reverse swinging Mitch Starc and bowling all rounder Henriques debuts at 7 after impressing in the warm up fixtures
Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Ed Cowan, 3 Phillip Hughes, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Matthew Wade (wk), 7 Moises Henriques, 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 James Pattinson, 11 Nathan Lyon
India will look to take advantage of Australia's fragility against spin, the only team news coming out is that Harbhajhan Singh will play test number 100 after an extended period outside the team. Ishant Sharma looks to be the lone seamer in a spin heavy attack
India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 M Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Ravindra Jadeja/Ajinkya Rahane, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Pragyan Ojha
(stolen from cricinfo)
Not a blade of grass on the Chennai wicket, it should be turning from ball one, the toss is huge as I wouldn't want to be chasing any sort of total. Smart money is on India at home, especially with the limited preparation some of our batsman have had.
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