India in Australia, Test Series Round-Up.

What a fantastic series it has been. Except for the Melbourne test where the Indian batting was under cooked, the series has been competitive. The series was compelling to watch and saw some good cricket from both the teams. A fair scoreline should have been 1-1. The Sydney test didn't deserve its result and also the off-field incidents that accompanied it. After this series it is probably right to say that India is the only team which can challenge Australia in Test arena. We have now had 3 good series against Australia from 2001. It was satisfying to see India win at Perth. I think with this win, India have shed the tag of poor travellers. The find of this series is Ishant Sharma. His spell in Perth to Ponting was superb. I have never seen Ponting look so uncomfortable like that after Ashes 2005. The Comeback of Irfan Pathan has been heartening. He has the quality to become a genuine allrounder and I hope he carries on in the same fashion. The batting was ably led by Tendulkar with timely contributions from Laxman, Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag. Even the tail contributed in a good manner with Bhajji and Kumble scoring some good runs. The Bowling was shared by the pacers Ishant, RP Singh, Pathan and by the captain Kumble. Kumble's captaincy was also good and in some cases better than Ponting. The disappointments of the series were Jaffer's form, Yuvraj's inability to adapt to the conditions, bowling form of Bhajji and the constant tinkering with the opening combinations. The experiment with Dravid should stop immediately. The opening combination should be Sehwag and Akash Chopra. The next test series for India is against South Africa in India. I hope to see Akash Chopra and Piyush Chawla in the team. Its time India groomed someone to replace Kumble.