Before the start of this series, my expectations on the performance of the Indian team would have been a series draw and sadly however hard you try to not read the score line, it shows Australia wins. So am I disappointed with the fabulous 5 ageing Indian batsmen and the young bowlers… not really? If things were sane in that fateful second test match, the score line would have been dramatically different but at the end of the day, you accept results as they are. India fought well to yet again compete hard with the Aussies and they were closer to a win than what they ever the last time around.

To start with who said test or cricket in general was dying… The Australian crowd proved a good example of what enjoying a cricket match actually means which is a far cry in India considering it is only when the Indian national team plays, there is stunningly full occupancy. Domestic matches would simply mean relatives of players desperately trying to get into the national team cheering them and nothing more. Whereas, how the Aussie public enjoy their local matches should put all so called pundits who claim that cricket is a religion in India to absolute shame.

Coming back to the series, it was brilliant with two teams stretching themselves out playing as hard as they can but the Hollywood style racial scandal was sour and a bunch of umpires possibly disgruntled with their employees used the wrong series to finger their opponents. The stakes were very high and nobody was in any mood to put up with disgruntled employees creating a racket as though they had to get back to them on reasons I would rather not want waste time on.

Mathew Hayden proved to be the nemesis yet again and positively endorses the fact that he ain’t human but an android possibly built by the Pope to kill the evil and all-powerful money making Indian cricket empire, if I could call it one. He was truly outstanding and after watching him for so many years, I still can’t figure out any chinks in the armor and so is the whole cricketing world.

Lee deserved to get the man-of-the-series, in what was the best and most consistently brilliant spells of fast bowling seen in a long time. I felt Akhtar’s destruction of New Zealand was the best individual match spell… This series, Lee was scintillating through out. I can’t say the same about Shaun Tait who continues to remain mediocre and hopefully, somebody will wake me up and show me when he finally consistently performs rather than receiving Hollywood style trailers after trailers on him but no real action.

Stuart Clarke was great but would want to forget the last match. I think rather than Johnson, he should take the new ball as Johnson wastes it by bowling too wide. Johnson has the pace required to create a dangerous reverse swing and logically, they need to switch.

Hogg kind of started well and lost the plot. I had hopes on him and now think it is time for Australia’s number 3 spinner… Bryce Mcgain to be given a shot.

Symonds took very opportunity and made it count and played a considerable part for this series victory. Ponting was all at sea, though he did a Dravid in the last match.

The Indians would have a lot more to take away from this tour and also end up in the same dreaded position they were with regard to the opening pair. Sehwag earned his comeback with his crucial set of knocks but it is time to send Jaffer back to drawing board to work on his technique. The biggest positive for India was on the bowling front where in spite of their best fast bowler, Zaheer Khan down in the dumps with an injury, he was hardly missed with R.P Singh who continues to improve and Ishanth Sharma being a good find, has brought a lot to cheer about. Pathan made his comeback but that surely cannot be a surprise considering he has some genuine talent.

It is also time for India to look beyond Harbhajan singh as it has been many years now and problems in bowling consistency never seem to end. He did jig with the bat which was vital but it is time to give Murali Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar etc. a decent run.
Rahul Dravid fought hard to get back into some kind of form. He improved as the series progressed but there is definitely something missing. With this fractured hand, I couldn’t help watching him distributing a stump to his mates to get it signed before the match got over and I get the feeling that he is going to call it quits sooner than expected. I hope I am wrong here but I feel it is weighing on Dravid’s mind.

Kumble was superb with his bowling as usual, fought with the bat and led the side well. He could improve on his field placements, other than that everything about him seemed quite right.

There was a great contest in this series and it also was sour considering the contest was robbed in one particular match and all the inconsistencies of the match referees on meting out dissent decisions and that horrible incident on racial abuse. That incident should have been diffused in 5 minutes and instead turned out to be a clash of two big, powerful, egoistic cricketing boards, both of them unwillingly to back down and admit mistakes and it is all snowballing into something ugly for the times to come.

Until then, let us enjoy the peace and the glorious cricket that was displayed. Congratulations Australia for wining this series… undisputed champions. India perhaps showed the world that the gap isn’t too much now with the Australian team and the rest but there is a gap big enough to clearly differentiate between remaining number 1 and the rest to play the catch up game. However, the core of this Indian team is getting old and it is not much time longer before they all hang the boots. Therefore it is time now to start the test team transition gradually to the younger fitter lot…. Gradually of course! That’s the catch otherwise all will be lost.