The last two weeks have been quite an emotional period for cricket following the death of former Australia Test batsman Phillip Hughes, after being struck on the head by a fast bouncer. Australia has witnessed the sort of national mourning which was earlier seen in the United Kingdom following the death of Lady Diana.
The cricketers were in no mood to do what they do best – play cricket, and hence a wise decision was taken to postpone the Brisbanse Test match which was to begin on the day of the Phillip Hughes funeral. Now, having been given the right time to mourn, the Australian cricketers are in a much better frame of mind, as we move on to the Adelaide Oval, which was the ground on which the legendary Don Bradman perfected his game.
Michael Clarke’s fitness is the biggest issue for Australia as he recovers from a serious hamstring injury. He is expected to make it, and if he doesn’t, Australia have a decent replacement in Shaun Marsh. Michael Clarke made a moving eulogy to Phillip Hughes at his funeral in his hometown of Macksville. Hughes was one of Clarke’s closest friends, who he called “little brother” and it is hoped that he will have his mind firmly on cricket by the time the match begins.
For India, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been yet to recover from his injury and is ruled out. This means that young Virat Kohli is all set to make his debut as a Test captain for India, and Wriddhiman Saha will be taking over the wicketkeeping duties from Dhoni.
India has their best fast bowling line-up ever, with Varun Aaron, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma, all being reasonably quick. Virat Kohli has expressed his satisfaction with the attack, he has at his disposal: “This one of the best bowling attacks we’ve had in a while. Guys who are bowling with pace and they’re fit.”
Aaron is the fastest of the lot and is certain to make the cut, which would mean that Umesh Yadav would be the one to miss out. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the medium pacer is out because of a persistent injury.
The question on everybody’s mind is will the bouncer be bowled at all, following what happened to Phillip Hughes? Well, cricket would lose much of its excitement if the bouncer was retired, and the fast bowlers would hold no threat to anybody. It would make the game really quite boring.
We expect the bouncer to be bowled and fast bowlers like Varun Aaron and Mitchell Johnson would relish bowling them. As Johnson said, “The first spell might be the most difficult. Then we might just get back into the game a bit more.”
The Teams:
Australia: 1 Chris Rogers, 2 David Warner, 3 Shane Watson, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Steven Smith, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Peter Siddle, 11 Nathan Lyon.
India: 1 M Vijay, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 Wriddiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Varun Aaron, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Mohammad Shami.
The Pitch and Match Conditions:
The Adelaide Oval curator Damian Hough said that it would be “a typical Adelaide Oval pitch. Hopefully there is a little bit in it early, it’s going to be good to bat on, and then take a little bit of spin and some inconsistency later in the game.” The weather should be perfect, bright and sunny with no expectation of rain.
