Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks edition of Paul Seaborne on cricket, and after what seems like an eternity, Test Match cricket returns this week as Australia are in India for a four-test series which commences on Thursday 9^th October.
 

The two teams have just finished competing in a tour match and whilst we cannot deduce too much from that, we can certainly have a look at how the Australians in particular fared on their first outing in the sub-continent for several years.

In the first innings of the four day game, superb centuries from Rohit Sharma and up and coming talent Vikram Kohli enabled India to post a very healthy 455 all out. This wasn’t a strong Indian batting line up by any stretch of the imagination, yet Australia’s bowlers struggled, with only Mitchell Johnson and the ever impressive Stuart Clarke impressing. Australia are really going to struggle in the bowling department on this tour, and expect them to hand debuts to either Cameron White or Jason Krezja. I have watched both of these guys before and believe me; they won’t be worrying the Indian’s too much. I won’t go into too much detail here as I will be previewing the tests later in the week, but suffice to say Australia will need to do early damage with the new ball to cause the Indians too much trouble.
 

I have been looking forward to this series for a long time. Many have predicted this is the series where Australia are finally knocked off the top of the tree, and you can’t say it hasn’t been coming for a long time. Just how much have they relied upon the brilliance of Shane Warne? How much will they miss Langer? I know they have a few series since then, but there hasn’t really been a series where they have been tested. India at home was probably their biggest test, and they came through that quite well, albeit not without a scare or two. Now though, they have to travel to India, a place notorious for being possibly the toughest tour on the planet, on raging turning wickets and 90,000 delirious fans against them. Should India prevail here, then it is a long road back for Australia, and they have to find a decent spinner and fast.
 

Elsewhere in the world, New Zealand are currently in Bangladesh for three one day internationals and two tests. One would expect New Zealand to come through this challenge comfortably, after all, half of the Bangladesh squad have retired to play in the ICL, and after a tough tour to England a couple of months ago, nothing less than a comprehensive victory will do for skipper Daniel Vetorri. Although not a walk in the park, Vetorri knows that a 3-0 sweep in the ODI’s will elevate New Zealand to number 2 in the world, something that excites him.

The Test matches will be a little different, as New Zealand will have to overcome typical sub continent tracks and guys like Jeetan Patel should come to the party. And with Scott Styris and even Jesse Ryder on hand to bowl little seamers, they should be well stocked to cover the conditions. You can expect plenty of runs early on in the games, and as the pitch wears, and the surface begins to crumble, the ball is going to rip out of the rough, and whilst Bangladesh are no world beaters, I wouldn’t want to be backing New Zealand to chase too many runs in the fourth innings of a game. There could just be a shock or two on the cards here.
 

The excitement surrounding the Stanford Twenty/20 game is starting to gather pace amongst the players, as the prospect of pickling up $500,000 for 2 weeks work really sinks in. However one player, Steve Harmison, has been keeping his feet on the ground, as he realises there are more important challenges in the next twelve months, culminating with the visit of Australia in June 2009. Speaking to the media this week, Harmison said “This is going to be an exciting and intense 12 months of cricket and I cannot wait. People will go on about the Stanford series and the money that is on offer, but every single Englishman knows the Ashes series against Australia is the one to really win,"
 

England players such as Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pieterson, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood are still hurting from the 5-0 whitewash in Australia a little over a year ago, and nothing should be detracting from the thought of regaining the Ashes, even $500,000.

On the English domestic front in the last week, former England supremo Duncan Fletcher has joined the Hampshire coaching staff on an 18-month deal. This will be a major boost for Hampshire, who had a disappointing season this year in all forms of the game, and this recruit will certainly boost their chances of success next year. Fletcher is still highly regarded in the game, especially in England, and although there were mistakes in Australia last year, one cannot forget the success he enjoyed whilst in charge of the England team, catapulting them to No 2 in the world. Since his departure, England's form has been pretty average, and has seen Michael Vaughan resign his captaincy and England slipping down to No 5 in the world. It will be interesting to see how Hampshire go next season.
 

And finally this week, whilst we prepare for the start of India v Australia, Ricky Ponting has made a very valid point amongst claims that Australia are vulnerable to spin, and as the media pointed out that Australia have lost more wickets to spin bowlers in India than seamers, he replied, very quickly with a dismissive “When spinners bowl 75% of the total over’s, chances are more that you would lose wickets to them” Very good Ricky.
 

Well that’s all I have for you this week, I’m off to divulge all the stats and information for you for the first test that starts this week, so be sure to keep checking back regularly for all the latest information and tips right here at www.priceform.com

Until then, be lucky
 

Paul