As Australia gears up to meet India in India, the questions are being asked about Australia's ability to bowl the Indians out - is it a valid concern? To a certain extent. The Australian bowling attack has only Brett Lee who has been around for a long period. Stuart Clark has been playing for couple of seasons now and has shown to be a capable strike bowler in most of the conditions he has faced so far. The spin-department is one that looks very bare. There is no Brad Hogg or Stuart Macgill, let alone Shane Warne. Michael Clarke is left alone to turn his arm over, when previously he had Andrew Symonds - remember the infamous Sydney test earlier this year (or was it last year) - when both of them took 3 wickets each to hasten India's defeat in the last hour.
The Indians though are not without issues. Their openers were their comforting factor in the series against Sri Lanka. The middle-order (with Sourav Ganguly more likely to be left out) is not in the best of form. Sachin Tendulkar is coming back from injury but he, Rahul Dravid and VVS have always done well against the Aussies. Dhoni will be a key factor - if he can hang around with the lower order and get some useful runs, that will mean the difference between defeat and victory. The Indian bowling, on paper, looks the best of all - still on paper, is a different proposition compared to the field.
All said and done, it looks like the Aussies will relinquish their trophy to the Indians in a very closely fought battle over the next month. The Gavaskar-Border trophy will be back in India!!!
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