Batsmen's feast in the offing

The hot and humid weather at Mumbai not withstanding, conditions at the Wankhede Stadium were perfect for a typically high-scoring game of one-day cricket. The pitch had a smattering of grass spread evenly across the surface, but looked absolutely dry, suggesting that the grass would help more in binding the surface together for the entire 100 overs than in assisting the seamers. The other vital ingredient, the outfield, was in perfect shape too, with the grass cut fine to ensure that batsmen would get full value for their strokes.

Rahul Dravid, who will lead India again after Sourav Ganguly was ruled out of the next two games as well, refused to speculate on the composition of the Indian team, but it is unlikely that any changes will be made from the line-up which beat Australia so convincingly at Gwalior. Though Ajit Agarkar had a disappointing opening spell, his crucial runs down the order should help him seal his place.

Not surprisingly, Dravid spoke about the need to bowl better with the new ball, after Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden scored 81 off the first 15 overs in their previous encounter. "There is very little margin for error against players of such quality. We have to restrict the runs early so that the spinners can then bowl in tandem and pile on the pressure on the batsmen."

Smarting from a convincing defeat in the first match, the Australians will need to prove that, despite the absence of all their star bowlers, they are still capable of putting it across an almost full-strength Indian line-up. So far in this series, their second-string bowling attack has performed admirably, keeping the Indian batsmen in check for much of the first match, and then skittling out New Zealand in seamer-friendly conditions. Ricky Ponting made no secret of his displeasure with the batting display, and it is unlikely that a line-up which includes - apart from Ponting himself - Hayden, Gilchrist, Martyn and Bevan will misfire twice in three games.

Encouragingly for the Australians, Brad Hogg proved that Australia have a spin weapon as well if conditions do become favourable for the spinners. Dravid made light of Hogg's impressive spell at Gwalior - "We were in the consolidation phase of our innings and hence weren't taking too many risks" - but Hogg impressed with his control and his ability to turn the ball both ways.

Meanwhile, SK Nair, secretary of the Indian board, stated that the selectors would meet tomorrow to select the squad for the next three games. Ganguly might well be kept out, as he is still recovering from a surgery on an abscess, but if his extended spell at the nets is any indication, then Ashish Nehra is a strong prospect. Bowling from his full run-up, Nehra steamed in and bowled a testing spell to Mohammad Kaif and Parthiv Patel. Parthiv, in particular, was constantly in trouble, playing and missing, and edging a few.

Also in the nets was Sachin Tendulkar, bowling some teasing medium pace, before coming out for a short stint with the bat. In his last three ODIs here, Tendulkar has scored just 47 runs. Time for the law of averages to take effect?

India (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 Zaheer Khan.

Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Michael Bevan, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Ian Harvey, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Andy Bichel, 10 Brad Williams, 11 Nathan Bracken.