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Shane Watson or Simon Katich as opener? Australia, typically, face a problem of plenty
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The big boys of the tournament, Australia, get their first outing in the
Champions Trophy when they take on West Indies at the Brabourne Stadium in
Mumbai. It has been hard going for the batsmen on two slow pitches, and
there's no reason to believe it will be any different on Wednesday. When
speaking to the media ahead of the game both Brian Lara, the West Indian
captain, and his counterpart Ricky Ponting, stressed on the fact that that
the team playing better cricket on the day would succeed.
The West Indies, who played at the Brabourne Stadium against Sri Lanka,
only managed 80 in that outing, but they have the advantage of knowing
exactly what can go wrong on a track like this. Lara is a master at
adapting to different conditions, and by now he is sure to have worked out
a strategy that will give him the best chances of succeeding. How his
team-mates deal with the same conditions, is a matter that remains to be
seen.
What could turn out to be crucial is the opening partnership for the West
Indies. Chris Gayle has the strokes to score quickly on any pitch, and
when the ball is new and hard it will come on to the bat better than at
any time. If he gets going, West Indies will have some sort of a platform
from which to build. Equally vital is the other half of the opening
partnership - Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Stephen Fleming showed on Monday
that it was possible to bat long on this pitch, if you were willing to
knuckle down and grind it out, and Chanderpaul has both the technique and
the temperament to do that.
West Indies are also fortunate in that the likes of Chris Gayle and Marlon
Samuels bowl a brand of quickish offspin that could prove to be very hard
to get away if the pitch crumbles like it did when South Africa batted
second against New Zealand. Even with the dew factor in mind, it's
difficult to see anyone winning the toss and choosing to insert the
opposition.
Australia, as always, are in a more comfortable position than the
opposition. They have a variety of different batsmen in their team who
can tackle pitches that take turn. Simon Katich is a serious option when
hard graft is called for, although Shane Watson seems to be a shoo-in to
open the batting. There are also Damien Martyn and Michael Clarke, two
batsmen who use their feet exceptionally well to the spinners, and can
keep the score moving along almost without anyone realising it.
If anything, Australia's problem is one of plenty. If they went with form
players, you'd expect Katich, Dan Cullen and Nathan Bracken to miss out.
However, if they chose to adopt a horses-for-courses approach, then any
one of these three players could be valuable. Ponting admitted that his
team was considering playing Cullen, the offspinner, alongside Brad Hogg,
but that this would depend on how many fast bowlers they thought they
would need. If they went in with only Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee, with
Watson as the third seamer, Cullen could get in. But it's hard to see this
happening, as they have spin options in Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke.
Ian Bradshaw, who has been one of the more reliable West Indian bowlers in
the recent past, sat out the game against Sri Lanka, but he's sure to come
back to the team for this big game against Australia. Speaking at a press
conference a couple of days before the game, he was confident that West
Indies could recover quickly from their setback, and hold their own in
this group. "We believe that we have the talent within this side not only
to win the next game against Australia but to finish at the top of our
group and progress to the semi finals," he said, after a practice session
at the Wankhede Stadium. Topping the group is some distance away yet, but
West Indies could certainly do with some good news in their immediate game
against Australia.
Anand Vasu is assistant editor of Cricinfo