This in the view that the current Aussie trio of James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle are very big hearted and accomplished performers. They work so cohesively as a unit, but the names in this batting line up have made more accomplished units look very clueless against them. Namely the likes of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee.

Lets look at this top 6 at greater depth..

Gautam Gambhir

The truth of this fine player is that he has struggled mightily since his year of dominance in 2009, where he averaged 90.87. His figures since do not lie, with an average of 31.06 from his 34 innings since with just one century and 8 fifties.

More worryingly for India is that since arriving in Australia, Gambhir’s form has gone from bad to worse. His struggle to adapt to the bounce has seen him join the Phil Hughes club of giving the slips practice. Three innings and three dismissals behind the wicket is never a good sign for an opener and his future prospects.

Series Potential:

In truth, if he fails again in the 2nd innings of this match and the team is defeated, the likelihood is that he will be dropped with Ajinkya Rahane replacing him at the top of the order.

Virender Sehwag

The truth of Sehwag is that he is a freak of cricketing nature that somehow has dominated the game with no footwork and very little technique. Just the eye of a hawk that allows him to see ball and belt ball.

Duly, he lives by the sword and he dies by the sword with his cavalier play.

In this series, he has threatened at times but never delivered. Always being found out in the conditions or being the architect of his own demise with his flashy strokes.

Series Potential

He has excelled in Australia before against greats of the game like Warne, Gillespie and McGrath allowing us to still have faith in Viru’s ability to make a decisive contribution in this series.

Rahul Dravid

The man known as ‘The Wall’ arrived in Australia after a 2011 that saw him average 57.25 with 5 centuries. Also a series performance in England that was viewed as one of the most accomplished performances by a batsman from a technical and temperament sense despite the huge odds against him.

Strangely, as soon as he arrived in Australia he has been marked by a real fragility that saw him look technically frail in the first Test, where he got bowled comprehensively 3 times in his two innings (once to a no ball), followed by a meek dismissal in the first innings of the 2nd Test.

Series Potential

To doubt Dravid is never a wise idea, but there is just something lacking in his batting that makes you doubt his ability to rise in this series.

Sachin Tendulkar

All we are hearing with regards to the Little Master is when will he score his 100th International hundred.

Which has been a perfect distraction from Sachin’s recent struggles in the game. Since his iconic century in South Africa against the mastery of Dale Steyn & co. he has threatened but never quite delivered with a characteristic decisive innings.

His average of 40.61 with just 5 half centuries shows this, well down on his career average of 56.

In this series he has had chances to play that game shaping innings with him being set on all the times he has batted, only to succumb when his team most needed him. All of his dismissals being born out of lapses of concentration that make you question whether Father Time is starting to have an impact on his game.

Series Potential

Tendulkar is one of the greatest batsmen in the game history and though he has struggled of late, only a fool would doubt his potential to play a master class inning sometime soon.

VVS Laxman

I am the hugest Laxman fan, and watching him here and in England has me fearing the end for him.

Bill Lawry in commentary summed him up perfectly when one of the first balls he faced drifted juicily onto his pads by saying, “My word the Laxman we know would have caressed that to the boundary”.

Instead, this Laxman missed it by a good long with the ball rattling into his pads.

The fluency so associated with his career has been replaced by him even struggling to find his next run. Which does not inspire hope in his future in Test cricket..

Series Potential

Fans of Laxman will hope lightning strikes twice for him in Sydney. His career was given a real birth with his masterful 167 in 2000, and he might indeed be fighting to save his career in the 2nd innings of this Test.

It breaks my heart to say this, and I sincerely hope he proves me wrong, but I think he is finished.

Virat Kohli

A truly awesome player in ODI/T20 Cricket where the conditions are so in the batsmen’s favour.

Though in Test Cricket, and particularly away from the batting friendly tracks of India, he has looked like a fish out of water.

An average of 13.75 in his 8 innings in foreign conditions shows his obvious inadequacies.

Series Potential

Selecting ODI players in Test Cricket is never a recipe for success, though the lad has talent. At present he is not a Test player’s bootlace and should be replaced by Rohit Sharma.

Summary

The Indians have huge issues and a further failure in the 2nd innings here from the trio of Gautam Gambhir, VVS Laxman and Virat Kohli would justify all of them being axed.

Gambhir is the key concern for India. With his failures, it has exposed the middle order to the new ball which has facilitated many of India’s current issues.

Away from these three under the hammer, there is not one batsman in the line up that you at present have complete faith in to perform in the conditions against this Aussie attack.

Even Sachin has dazzled us with some of his masterful play, but then got out without making a decisive contribution to the Team.

In truth, the bold statement by Glenn McGrath about India being whitewashed 4-0 in this series was just laughed off as gamesmanship from the Aussie immortal. Though, if the batting continues with their struggles, it might actually come true….

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