Time for Indians to deliver

Cricket Tri-series: In search of their first victory, Dhoni's men take on the in-form Australians

January 26 is a momentous day for both India and Australia. While India declared themselves a republic on the day in 1950, Australia celebrate it as their National Day which marks the arrival of the first ship from England in 1788.

The Indian cricket team, however, will have to hold their celebrations a bit as they take on Australia in a crucial tri-series match here at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday.

Having been defeated in both their previous matches by Australia and England, India will be leaving it too late and will be left with too much to do if they slump to a hat-trick of losses in the tournament.

MS Dhoni and company, theoretically speaking, will still be in with a chance to join the hosts in the February 1 final, but then they will have to not only beat England with a bonus point but also make up for their significantly low net run-rate in their final league tie in Perth.

England did well to defeat India in Brisbane with a bonus point and in the process they also enhanced their net run-rate by winning the tie with more than 22 overs left in their chase of 154.

While England enjoy a net run-rate of +0.481, India’s is in the negative (-1.356). And should they lose against Australia, their poor run-rate will become pathetic.

This equation has put India in an almost must-win situation on Monday and obviously on Friday in Perth.

Two simple wins will do the job for India but given their performance in this competition so far, the task isn’t that simple. If anything, India appear a bit unsettled at the moment. They are juggling to get both their batting and bowling combinations right and with the World Cup round the corner, it’s a situation they could have done without. That said, there are a few problems and they need to be fixed.

While Rohit Sharma remains unavailable for selection — which means a struggling Shikhar Dhawan will get another opportunity to prolong his stay in the side — the rest of the batting has shown signs of being diffident in its approach.

Virat Kohli’s twin failures have robbed India of both solidity and firepower while Dhoni doesn’t know whether to build the innings or blast through one in the absence of a lower-order batsman who can get them a quick 40 or 50.

This hesitancy has pulled the team back. While it’s harsh to judge on just two overseas performances, Axar Patel hasn’t inspired any confidence by lasting three balls in two matches.

The good news for India though was that both Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja are available for selection. Whether they will risk them, especially Jadeja, on Monday or for that matter in the tri-series itself is a million dollar question.

On a good day, Jadeja can give you 10 tidy overs and provide more muscle to lower-order batting but since his injury is related to shoulder, he may become ineffective while fielding given the large size of the grounds here. It’s an issue the team management will carefully tread.

Ishant, seemingly fit after a knee injury, may just get a look in since the drawn Sydney Test. The gangling paceman will probably replace Umesh Yadav while Stuart Binny, who did reasonably well with both bat and ball, may make way for R Ashwin given the nature of the Sydney surface that has generally tended to play slow through middle and end.

If any confirmation was needed about the likely behaviour of the pitch, George Bailey gave it away by announcing that left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty, who sat out their last two matches, may make the cut.

Australia, however, are brimming with bowling resources despite Mitchell Johnson’s continued rest and Shane Watson’s unavailability through a tight hamstring. Led by Mitchell Starc, their death bowling has been sensational and especially so in Hobart against England.

David Warner returns to the top after a one-match rest while Bailey takes back the captaincy mantle from Steven Smith after serving one-match suspension, the two replacing Shaun Marsh and Cameron White respectively.

Given that Australia are already in the final, they may experiment with their batting order and take some batsmen out of their comfort zone. And that’s not exactly a bad news for India, still in search of their first win on this tour.