Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks edition of Paul Seaborne on Cricket. This week we shall be focusing on the excellent Indian victory over Australia which concluded this morning with India bowling Australia out to complete a fantastic 2-0 series victory.

One expects that Australia will be quite happy to get out of India. After this mauling they will have to take a serious look at themselves as they prepare for the big clash against South Africa both home and away, before travelling to England as they look to defend the Ashes.

Before we take a look at Australia’s shortcomings, we have to say a massive well done to India. They have fully deserved this victory, and it is a wonderful send off for Suarav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, and, one suspects, Rahul Dravid. Although Dravid hasn’t announced his retirement yet, it can’t be long coming, as India look to phase out the more senior members of the team, and replace them with up and coming youngsters.

India have gone about this well. You only have to look to Australia to see how big an impact it has when four or five of your top players all retire at once. Within the last eighteen months we have seen the retirements of Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Glen Mcgrath. This has left a huge hole in Australia’s team, a hole they are struggling to fill.

India on the other hand, it seems, are gently phasing out there star players, but only when a suitable replacement has been found. First to go was Anil Kumble, because they knew they had a replacement in Amit Mishra. Then Suarav Ganguly announced he was to retire, because India know they have strength in depth with the batting. Next to come will be Tendulker, then Laxman, but just as India say farewell to former stars, they are welcoming others with open arms. Ishant Sharma has just won the player of the series, Gautem Ghambhir has established himself as a worthy opener alongside Virender Sehwag, and in Amit Mishra they have a leg spinner who appears to have all the capabilities to step into Anil Kunble’s shoes.

However we must not go overboard as far as this victory is concerned, for whilst it was a very good win and we don’t want to take anything away from India, it isn’t the strongest Australian side they have just beaten. And certainly winning three tosses out of four helped them immensely.

In fact this series has seen the effect of winning the toss become increasingly important. When Australia won it on the morning of the first test, they went on to post 430 and effectively put India out of the game. India won the remaining tosses, and went on to post 469, 613 and 441. Once you post these totals, it is very hard for the other side to stay in the game, the only difference was that India’s bowlers were more potent than their counterparts, and could really capitalise on the big totals set for them.

For when Australia did set a first innings score of 430, they lacked the bowling to kill the Indians off first innings and really set the pressure mounting. They have been punished largely due to the ineffectiveness of their bowling. Brett Lee has looked out of sorts, Stuart Clarke wasn’t 100% fit and they have no notable spinner they can rely upon, a cardinal sin when touring the sub-continent. Try as he might, Cameron White quite simply isn’t the answer. This is a guy who was on 2nd choice spinner in the English Domestic league not two years ago with Somerset. Ponting had little choice in the bowling department, where he could once turn to likes of Shane Warne, or Glen Mcgrath, he didn’t have those options.

Let’s look at Ponting’s captaincy here for a moment, for he is not entirely blameless here. He started with a bang, scoring a hundred in the first test, but after that managed scores of 5, 2, 87, 24 and 8. So pretty up and down. I was intrigued to see how Ponting would fare on this tour, for it really was the first tour of any substantial challenges since the departure of the retirees. How did he do? Well – he handled his bowlers rather well, and realised early on that the way to go on these pitches wasn’t simply to hand the new ball to Johnson and Lee, have three slips and a gully and blast the opposition out. He realised he would have to think a little harder than he had done in the past, and think he did, he used Simon Katich, Michael Clarke, and even Michael Hussey at times, to try to give his strike bowlers a rest.

The most successful bowler for Australia was not found until the last test, when Jason Krejza took 12 wickets in the match including eight in the first innings. He will be one to watch in the coming months.

So overall we have to say well done to India – they have played some excellent cricket at times, their bowling, in both the spin and seam departments has been impressive, along with their impressive batting line up, could well be on the way to the top of tree, and unless Australia find a solution to their bowling problems, could be heading in the opposite direction.

Next on India’s agenda are England, who have just arrived in the sub continent for a seven ODI and two Test series. In the single warm up game that England have had so far, Andrew Flintoff showed why he is still so important to England’s success with an unbeaten hundred against and Indian XI. England posted 297/4 in their 50 overs, before restricting India to 185.8 off their allotted overs, with James Anderson the pick of the bowlers with three wickets.

It is sure to be a hard tour, which extends until Christmas Eve, when the second test concludes. It will be just as tough a tour for Kevin Pieterson as it was for Ricky Ponting.

England will need some sort of success here in the test arena, having lost all their recent series barring New Zealand – and I think nothing less than a drawn series will suffice for England, although personally cannot see it.

As far as the One Day series goes, I never thought I’d say this – but England have a chance in this. India will be tired from four tests against Australia, and England under Pieterson are a decent one day outfit, having come off the back of an impressive series victory against South Africa, they have a balanced attack with Harmison, Anderson, Flintoff and Sidebottom all useful seam/fast bowlers, and in the spin dept they have Samit Patel, Graham Swanne and Pieterson himself. With a strong looking batting order, don’t be surprised if this series is a lot closer than some may think.

Also this week, South Africa are currently destroying Bangladesh in South Africa, having racked up 283 and 354 in their two games so far this week, and a whitewash there seems on the cards. South Africa are without opening batsman Herschille Gibbs, who has been on a bit of a bender this week after the breakdown of his marriage, and has since been disciplined by the powers that be in Johannesburg. Let’s all hope he gets fit and well sooner rather than later.

Another “bad boy” of cricket has been in the press this week. Andrew Symonds is keen to put his recent blips behind him and is ready to fight for his place back in the Australian test team, and boy do they need him.

"It's felt like a long time for me," he said. "You've never played cricket for Australia. Being dropped from the team is not a great feeling and I want that back and on Friday night I've been given that opportunity. I'm really looking forward to that, getting back out there with my green and gold jumper on and enjoying a night out with my mates."

Symonds is extra keen to regain his place in the Aussie Test team, but after Shane Watson impressed in India, it may be a challenge for Symonds to compete, and he can banish any thoughts he may have of just walking back into the team. His first class performances this year so far have been poor, with a string of low scores with the bat, and with Watson scoring runs for Australia in India, he better take any opportunity he gets with both hands, and as the man himself admits, any mistake he makes now with have a very unhappy ending.

And finally this week – after all the flack Ricky Ponting has had to deal with, one final comment from Alan Border, whilst commentating on the final test, explained "I'm glad Ricky [Ponting] can't read my mind right now because he's not going to like it."

Well that’s all I have for you this week, be sure to keep checking in to Priceform for all the latest news and previews.

Until then, be lucky

Paul.