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Kumble on the other hand is a known enemy. They have played him for years, have got better against him over time, playing him more like an in-swinger than a spinner, and know he's well past his best, averaging 46 runs a wicket in his last eleven Tests. Besides, he's been carrying an injury for we don't know how long, and he hasn't got any practice for a fortnight now. So, whom would you rather face, Kumble or Mishra?
Yes, Ferozeshah Kotla is Kumble's favourite surface, and he's been on the phone with the curator. But if Mishra could bamboozle the Aussies on a Mohali wicket, imagine what he could do in the helpful conditions of Delhi. Anybody who watched the IPL will remember Mishra's exploits for Delhi, including a hat-trick, which is what brought him into contention for the Indian team.
Some commentators are saying glibly that Mishra should wait his turn, that he has a long future ahead of him, that Kumble should first choose to quit. Why should Mishra wait when he is at the peak of his bowling prowess? This might be the series that establishes him in world cricket like the 2001 series did for Harbhajan Singh.
It should simply have been a question of who is bowling better at the moment, and who the Aussies would prefer not to face. It should simply have been a question of fielding the team most suitable for maintaining India's lead in the series and trying to extend it. But that's not how Indian cricket works, and that's the only Aussie hope now.
The selectors, especially former leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani I suspect, deserve credit for picking Amit Mishra ahead of Piyush Chawla for this series. It was fortuitous for them that Kumble's shoulder injury got aggravated during the first Test and Mishra got into the playing eleven.
But then they copped out by naming Kumble captain for the remaining two Tests and leaving it to him to decide who plays in Delhi. Even if Mishra gets in, I doubt he will be half as effective under Kumble as he was under Dhoni. I doubt he will get to bowl at the right time.
To see Kumble captaining the side after Dhoni will also be such a let-down. Kumble was never considered captain material. That's why Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid all got the job ahead of him. He got the job only after Dravid quit the captaincy suddenly after the pressure of under-performing got to him. The selectors displayed a lack of vision by naming Dhoni only as the one-day captain, despite the magic of the T20 triumph.
Kumble's captaincy so far has been uninspiring and yielded poor results - a one-nil series victory over Pakistan thanks to a helpful Delhi wicket being the only success in four series before this one. It was palpable how Dhoni's leadership suddenly galvanized the side in Bangalore on the fourth day when Kumble took an injury break.
After being on the backfoot right from the first day, India suddenly looked like getting into a winning position. The same Dhoni effect was very much evident in the Mohali Test, especially when he asked Mishra to come round the wicket and bowl a googly to Michael Clarke in the final over of the second day. India went on to hand out the worst hiding that Ponting has ever experienced as captain, although he must be getting used to coming out second best to Dhoni. The Twenty20 World Cup, the series Down Under, and now this.
So, yes, to have Kumble and not Dhoni as his adversary in Delhi, and to bat against Kumble and not Mishra, will be a nice Diwali gift to Ponting from the Indians. The Indian selectors, on the other hand, will be hoping that Lady Luck smiles on Kumble by giving him another ideal pitch for his sort of bowling in Delhi.
But even if Kumble pulls it off as bowler and captain in tailor-made conditions, I would still maintain that it is a big step backward for Indian cricket. I mean Kumble can only do it in Delhi now, but Mishra has already shown he's a spinner for all conditions, and Dhoni has already shown the kind of self-belief that teams and captains have lacked for years against the Aussies. It's amazing that the Indian selectors and administrators refuse to see this.