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ShareAustralia's theory of bringing along fast bowlers for the tour really backfired, and badly at that. For the Indians, on slow and low wickets, seemed all too good for them. Winning the toss, I guess, thus proved very vital, as the wickets played at their best on the first two days, and deteriorated thereafter.
In this series, the emergence of Ishant Sharma as a strike bowler was very crucial from India's point of view. Here is a lad who, if used sparingly, could dominate batsmen the world over, not only with his speed but also with the reverse swing he generates. I'm sure he must have learnt a lot from Zaheer bowling in tandem with him.
Harbhajan and Amit Mishra too bowled very well to put the visitors on the back foot. At last, India can boast of bowlers in their line-up who are good enough to take a five-wicket haul at any given time. That was not quite the case before.
Virendra Sehwag's consistency with the bat, and Gambhir's maturity were some of the positives as far as the batting was concerned. Of course, there were Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman to add solidity to India's middle order.
However, the man of the moment, beyond any doubt, has been Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Whenever he's been asked to lead the side, he's turned things around with his infectious positiveness, aggressive approach and his penchant to lead from the front, all of which goes down very well with his entire team. The great team man that he is, Dhoni should lead India for many years to come, for he's quite capable of making India the No. 1 in world cricket in all versions of the game.
The Aussies kept made the wrong choices, as far as selection of the playing eleven was concerned. Much was expected from their seniors, but they failed to deliver, and that put the newcomers under pressure so immense that they couldn't handle it.
Well played, India.
