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Team India wary of curator promises

ADELAIDE 21 JAN 2012: They said it would spin at the SCG, but it didn't. They claimed it would bounce at the WACA, but the bounce wasn't alarming at all.

After being twice sold dummies by Australian curators, you can forgive the Indian team management for not taking South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) curator Damien Hough's assessment of the pitch on face value. "There will be more grass and there will be more bounce. There will be something for the fast bowlers on the opening day," said Hough. "Then it will be good for batting on Day two and three and variable bounce will come into play on the final two days," he added. It remains to be seen how much grass - which dries quickly in the searing heat - Hough will finally leave on the pitch, even though he claimed that he had been under no pressure to prepare a surface that will aid Australia's cause. "The heat will definitely dry out the pitch. It's reasonably dry already," Hough added. Australian pacers relished the grassy surface in Perth to bowl India out twice in two-and-a-half days to put a lid on the series, and India fear that if dry grass is left on the pitch, bowlers may be able to generate a spongy bounce like at the MCG. That could be crucial in the opening stages of the match. Hough's claim that spinners will come into play on the last two days has not impressed the Indians much, and though they are in no tearing hurry to finalise their final XI, it is unlikely they will field a split attack and play two pacers and two spinners here in a desperate bid to stave off a whitewash. It will be a tall order for stand-in captain Virender Sehwag to halt the Australian juggernaut, for Michael Clarke and his team mean business. With their skipper vowing to win every Test match, the Aussies will be going into the final Test with their hunger for victory undiminished. India, on the other hand, have done nothing over the past four weeks to suggest that things can change. Every defeat has been followed by stale routines in the nets with players merely content to go through the motions. The scenario hasn't changed even now. With just one game remaining, the impression one gets from watching the Indian players while training is that they are just waiting for the series - and their misery - to end. As the next Test series is a good eight months away at home against New Zealand, the chances are that a better showing in the ODI tri-series and the razzmatazz of IPL 5 will drive away the Australian nightmare from public memory. And with no foreign travel slated for another year, the 'zeroes' of England and Australia tours will regain their prima donna status. It is a tried and tested ploy that has worked before and there is no reason why it will not work again. Courtesy:TOI

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