Wednesday 29 October 2008

Do India have the balls to beat Australia?

To me, Australia's 2005 Ashes loss was an aberration. It should not have happened. A lot has been said about the reasons why, and I think a lot of it came down to "reverse swing bowling" to over simplify the issue. There has been quite a bit of talk about how it was that the English were able to engineer such reverse swing, with speculation ranging from a specific type of breath mints, to the English pitches, to the type of cricket balls used.

Whatever it was, it was something that wasn't present when the English visited Australia in late 2006.

Anyway, it seems like the Indians are using the same balls that the English used and there is speculation that this is what has given them the winning edge.

Personally I think it's no excuse for Australia not to be able to play reverse swing, they should be able to use tennis balls with duct tape on one side for all I care, I don't see how a powerful cricket nation like Australia can't deal with reverse swing.

From my point of view, the only way a specific cricket ball was a factor in our Ashes loss was when Glenn McGrath stepped on one during training before the second test and injured himself.

That's what lost us the Ashes.

The only way a specific cricket ball will lose us the series in India this time around, is if they put one in the hands of Jason Krejza.

Thankfully, we've dodged that bullet - for now.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yes, but we picked Cameron White...

Agree with all of that. There are further parallels with England 2005 in that we continue to pick a strange team (why weren't MacGill and Hussey picked in 05?)

Anyway, let's rally behind this team. This is our biggest challenge since 05 and a great chance for the senior men to stand up and for the junior guys to stake their claims.