Sydney Cricket Ground
10:30am Tuesday January 3-Saturday January 7
India remain winless in first tests in Australia and, while Tendulkar likes Sydney having scored big unbeaten tons in 3 of his 4 Tests here, India's only win in Sydney was in the World Series era 34 years ago, and their only 2nd test victory was in Adelaide in 2003 when Dravid and Ponting both made first innings double tons, Irfan Pathan made his debut, Shane Warne was suspended and Brad Williams was opening the bowling for Australia.
More questions over the Australian batsmen now than there were going into Melbourne with the 3 under most pressure all getting 50s and the other 3 managing just 77 between them. Haddin struggled again but dropping him doesn't seem to be on the selectors' minds and the lack of first class cricket means that's unlikely to change at least for this series. Ryan Harris comes into the squad but it's hard to see how he gets in, but while they've got four good quicks to choose from this is the best opportunity the selectors will get to give Pattinson a rest.
Gambhir, Laxman, Kohli and Ishant Sharma were the weakest links for India in Melbourne. Gambhir has now gone 23 months without a Test century, while Laxman scored one against the Windies but you never really know how to rate anything against them, and he had a very ordinary tour of England. Kohli's now played 4 tests away from home for an average of just 12, but the 50 in each innings he made in his only test in India a month ago may give Ian Chappell one more test to Gunnar about Rohit Sharma. Rahane is the opener who would replace Gambhir - both batsmen average 60+ in 50ish first class games, but Indian first class cricket is played on Indian pitches.
Ishant's form is also pretty ordinary - he liked the Caribbean with 22 wickets at 16, but of the other 4 series he's played in the last 12 months his best series bowling average is the 45.5 from Melbourne. Abhimanyu Mithun was picked as a replacement before Vinay Kumar (who was called up to replace the first replacement a few days later), leaving him the most likely to take Ishant's spot, unless they want to gamble on a second spinner with Dhoni now their best seam bowler in the top 7, and Zaheer always 40/60 at best to make it through back-to-back tests.
Australia XII:
David Warner
Ed Cowan
Shaun Marsh
Ricky Ponting
*Michael Clarke
Mike Hussey
+Brad Haddin
Peter Siddle
James Pattinson
Ryan Harris
Ben Hilfenhaus
Nathan Lyon
In:
Harris
India XVII:
Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Ajinkya Rahane (Test debut)
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
VVS Laxman
Virat Kohli
Rohit Sharma (Test debut)
*+MS Dhoni
Wriddhiman Saha
Ravi Ashwin
Abhimanyu Mithun
Zaheer Khan
Vinay Kumar (Test debut)
Ishant Sharma
Pragyan Ojha
Umesh Yadav
In:
Rahane
Sharma
Saha
Mithun
Vinay Kumar
Ojha
Umpires:
Marais Erasmus (South Africa)
Ian Gould (England)
Bruce Oxenford (3rd, Queensland)
Weather:
High 20s-low 30s before the change on Wednesday, then mid 20s for the remainder with a small chance of rain
Session Times
First session: 10:30am-12:30pm
Second session: 1:10-3:10pm
Third session: 3:30-5:30pm
Coverage:
Cricinfo's scorecard and commentary
Cricket Australia's scorecard
p) The pitch is a batting paradise now so we will really see what the bowlers have to offer. Its a real test for the mentality of the Indians too. This is real test cricket. Tough & unrelenting. Its a lot different to T20 glitz we've gotten use to. Both have their place though. Its good that cricket is on a high at the moment.
