Reverse sting

That Indian pace should blast the Aussies off their pedestal seems to be sweet irony, writes Rohit Mahajan in Outlook. Assessing a few dismissals from the first two Tests and speaking to members of the Australian support staff as well as Peter Roebuck, the columnist, Mahajan notes that with hostile spells on unhelpful tracks, India's fast bowlers have initiated reverse swing when conventional movement was hard to come by in the first place.

A TV grab of the state of the balls after an equal number of overs bowled by both teams proved the Indians have the art of keeping the shine on one side of the ball, the Australians lack it. No wonder some Aussie batsmen looked like outdated spare parts on the crease. "We got the ball to swing, especially reverse-swing when it was nice and hard," Dhoni said. "We pitched it in the right areas, and the spinners also bowled well.