Nagpur ODI Preview: India Have A Chance!

It is always hard to plan or win against a team at less than full strength. But for India’s ailing woes, the injuries to the Australian cricketers may be a boon, a blessing!
Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, will not be a happy man going into the second ODI against India without Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and James Hopes, all sidelined with injuries. But what it does is even out the field a little bit given that team India have been under par performers whose fortunes looked better only when Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar threw caution to the wind in the first ODI in Vadodara.
While Australia will grapple without their front line bowlers, what it will do is allow the likes of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh settle in a bit after their injury time outs. While there has been speculation about the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, batting as high as number four, what is of more importance is patience, something that the Indian coach, Gary Kirsten, will have to drill into the young wards like Ravindra Jadeja.
India have lacked in the fielding department, their death bowling has been less than desirable and the batting has crumbled for want of not just running between the wickets but also, because of the inability to forge partnerships.
Partnerships will tell the tale at Nagpur as well as India really let slip of the match after Gautam Gambhir stitched up a nice story. With the propensity to play a Twenty20 like innings, team Indian batsmen will have to be guided back to playing more of a Test innings, slowly countering the opposition through steady partnerships rather than slam bang their way through.
But the bowling will once again be on test. Whether India pursue with Praveen Kumar remains to be seen, but Harbhajan Singh leaves India with little choice but to persist with him, hoping he finds his way back again.
Ashish Nehra will have to prove he can be consistent while Ishant Sharma can ill afford to rest on his better bowling from the first match. How these two build from the first game will make the difference between whether Australia succumb to their misfortunes or whether the world champions and the ICC Champions Trophy winners 2009 will get away against a wary attack.