Wasim Jaffer clearly starts as one of the openers, and the next 5 spots must surely be divided up between Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh: I don't really care who opens.. but that quintet must play... and if that means one of them opens with Jaffer then sobeit.

I don't see Dhoni's singularly ordinary glovework costing him the gloves.. so he's in. Then it's surely Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan plus two... with Irfan Pathan in prime position for one spot (batting above Kumble) and presumably RP Singh getting the other.

One way or the other.... that side should at least leave Australian shores unbeaten... and if I were the coach that would be my challenge to the Aussies: either prepare a sporting wicket on which we stand a good chance of taking 20 Aussie wickets... or face up to a series of high scoring draws.

If I were in the Indian management's shoes, one thing I'd do right from the start is announce that the side regards contrived results based on declarations as bad for the game and announce that India will bat through to the end of all innings rather than diminish the game in order to get results on pitches too true and hard wearing to offer any prospect of a decent contest between bat and ball.

Of course... the chances of the Aussies taking up the challenge rather than running away from it? Just about zero.

Well, I'm very pleased that Sehwag's made the final squad, even if he didn't make the initial one.

Yes Rachael, you're probably right- I'd say that if that were to happen it would have to be Dravid who gets the opening slot. But Sehwag should definitely get in if one of the players doesn't perform.

When I saw him 'keep against the Australian team, I didn't think that he was that bad. I remember reading an article by Ian Chappell saying that he definitely had the ability to improve his glovework.

God, I hope not. Three left-arm fast bowlers makes for a very ugly-looking, unbalanced attack. This is where Sreesanth's absence really hurts India, as he's been very successful so far in Tests. I think Munaf Patel is injured too, so that leaves it down to Ajit Agarkar and Ishant Sharma. I'd be more inclined to take Sharma, myself- I get the impression that he's quite tall, so would get good bounce on the hard pitches, and would add a little variety to the attack.

So my team for the first Test would read- Jaffer, Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble, Khan, Sharma, Sehwag (12th), with Sehwag to come in if one of the batsmen doesn't fire.

I agree. I do not see this Indian bowling attack taking more than 10 Australian wickets in the entire series. Same with Indian batting - I do not see any Indian batsman crossing 100 against the pace of Lee, Tate and Johnson.

Have you nothing good to say about India. All I read from you are cheap shots aimed at India.

The pace of Lee, Tait and Johnson, do you not remember when Sehwag scored 195. Yes, Lee was in that attack and I do not believe the Aussie selectors will play all 3 bowlers you have mentioned, Stuart Clarke is a certainty and Tait will be the player to miss out. Johnson IMO is overated and he is not even that quick. The main threat will be Clarke and Lee.

Rahul Dravid is one of the best batsman in the world and has scored heavil against Australia in the past. What makes you so sure that he wont be able to score a ton.

Laxman, his career bes is against Australia.

Jaffer is a solid tall opening batsman with a very good technique. I believe he will be able to cope with the extra pace of Lee.

Tendulkar, need I say more.

I agree that Yuvraj and Ganguly may struggle against pace, especially the short ball, that is why I would play Sehwag and drop Yuvraj for the 1st test. The rest of the batsman all have the potential and technique to cope with the Aussie attack, although it wont be easy.

I still see a comfortable Australia win as their batting is just too strong for any Indian attack. Hopefully I am wrong and we have a competitive series.

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434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

You've got to be kidding me!

Bangladesh in Australia took 7 in an innings. New Zealand bowled Australia out last time they were here, when they had an ordinary attack. Same with West Indies. In fact, last time they were here, India's bowling attack read Khan, Pathan, Agarkar, Kumble and Harbhajan. Khan and Harbhajan only played three Tests between them that series, and Pathan made his debut. With that attack, they fought Australia to a standstill.

Okay, so India will likely lose this series, but your claim is so absurd that it borders on the laughable.

django at his best (always there for worst Pessimistic View on Indian Team)
i hope indian bowlers take atleast one wicket more than what django is predicting them to take
the same goes for indian batsmen and make django's words wrong
thanx django for ur negative thoughts on indian team

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Heat Sucks-Red Death

Well, I don't think there can be any doubt about it. The Indian management is stupid. They schedule one practise match-one. Then it pours, leaving only two batsmen getting significant practice before the series. The bowlers don't get any game time at all. And all because the BCCI wanted to make some extra dough playing pointless Test matches against Pakistan, which didn't even get a result. I stand by my statement about the abilities of this Indian team, but there's only so much you can do when the management is so completely incompetent.

India look ripe for a thrashing given their lack of preparation in Australian conditions,it would be no surprise if they were skittled for less than 200 in their first knock and then saw Australia ease their way to 500.

Amazed Sreesanth has not been picked,even more surprised Pathan is back as he is pretty ordinary.

I'm not sure if this is a serious post, or a nonsense one posted just to stir up the karma in the hopes that you are proven wrong...........like this one i did prior to the Eng/S.L series

England no Pushover

I suspect the latter

Now this one here is nonsense though.

In the last four seasons in Australia, there have been 18 tests played resulting in 17 wins for Australia and one draw. Of those 17 wins, Australia have taken all twenty opposition wickets in 15 of the 17 tests wins. I have no idea where you came up with this notion Rachel, i'm sorry.

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So that's two Tests in which even Australia (at their exceptionally strong best) couldn't force 20 wickets. Now count up the number of times a more typical international attack failed to take 10 wickets in Australia's 1st inning... and give me your thoughts on how many times Australia would have managed 20 wickets with a perfectly respectable attack of (say) Gillespie, Kasprowicz, Noffke, Watson and Hogg?

How commonly have matches on Aussie soil seen more than one century in an innings? Or absurd 1st innings totals in excess of 400? These things should be expected once in a while (from freakishly good performances)... but in Australia it's become almost routine - and that is a sad inditement of Aussie pitches.

What's needed, of course, is an Aussie captain and coach with the guys to ask groundsmen to prepare pitches with enough variable bounce to pretty much guarantee that batting an opposition out of the game is just about impossible... but that seems about as likely as the Aussies adopting a ball with a prominent enough and hard enough seam to encourage movement through to at least the 20th over.