Welcome 2021 and with that another Test Match at Sydney (which is miracle by itself). After India’s comfortable win at Melbourne, we arrive at Sydney tied at 1–1 instead of 2–0 which apparently the whole world was predicting.
Props have to be given to Shastri and Kohli for all their talk about building a team culture and environment and blooding in players who are ready to take on the rigours of Test cricket from their maiden test match. Rahane gets much of the credit for the win and great captaincy, but he got a team that was ready for the challenge, a far cry from previous teams who would just capitulated after the embarrassment at Adelaide.
Australia head into Sydney with the same questions as before? Who will open the batting for them, and who will score the runs if Smith fails? Labuschagne has been scratchy and others have just looked out of sorts. Having Warner back, would be a huge boost for the team as he would provide impetus at the start and put the Indian bowlers under pressure, but in his absence we should definitely see the debut of Pucovski.
A lot many questions for India’s selection even after their victory in Melbourne. Umesh’s loss is a big one since it will now expose India’s bowling a bit. Filling the spot with Natarajan seems tempting but would be a gamble exposing a player without any reasonable FC experience. Shardul should be preferred based on his consistent FC record, but whether he would be able to maintain the same pressure that the other seamers are exerting would be an open question. Batting should be straight forward with Rohit slotting into opening with Mayank and Shubham moving down to replace Vihari. I know there are calls for KL Rahul, but Mayank deserves an extended run just like KL had before him. Gill has played majority of his matches in the middle order and should be a direct replacement for Vihari as India is now going with 5 bowlers and Vihari’s part time overs have little value now.
A bold move would be to bring in Kuldeep for Umesh if the SCG offers turn as it traditionally use to. Remember it was Rahane who made the same move when he stood in as Captain for Kohli in the decider in 2017 at Dharamshala. Kuldeep’s 4 first innings wickets for crucial to ensure India winning the series.
Here are my predictions a week out from the Test Match:
Pujara and Smith both come good and record centuries in the first innings. Pant and Jadeja play crucial knocks handing India the first innings lead. The Indian spin bowling shines again and exposes the frailties of Aussie batting which their great bowling line up is not able to cover up.
