MELBOURNE, Australia, 26 December 2003 — Australia face their biggest cricket challenge in over a decade in the third Boxing Day Test here with India one-up in the series with two matches to play.
In what seemed an outrageous suggestion at the onset of the series Australia are on the brink of their first series loss at home for 11 years.
Australia are feeling the affects of playing without their talismen bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne along with the injured Jason Gillespie against a team regarded as one of the best batting sides in the game.
Much of Australia’s hopes rest with paceman Brett Lee, back into the team after an injury and surgery to his ankle.
Lee has played in just four losing Australian teams in his 35 Tests — and none of the losses were in live matches as they all came after a series had been decided in Australia’s favor.
And Lee has only experienced a loss once on Australian soil, against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January this year when Australia had to do without injured pair Warne and McGrath.
Lee finds himself in a similar position here, leading a thin Australian attack, without McGrath, Warne or Gillespie.
“He wants that responsibility. He’s talked about stepping up to the plate,” Australian captain Steve Waugh said of Lee yesterday.
“He’s done that in one-dayers and the time is right for Brett to take up the challenge and to assume the mantle of strike bowler — and he doesn’t get an opportunity better than the Boxing Day Test.”
Indian captain Saurav Ganguly acknowledged Lee’s impeccable record against India —13 wickets at an average of 14.15 in his first two Tests four years ago — but said the fastest bowler in the game would find it hard without McGrath or Gillespie bowling at the other end.
“He’s got a bit of pace,” Ganguly said. “But I’ve always thought of bowling like batting, you bowl in pairs. And without McGrath at the other end it’s a different ball game.
“Suddenly he’s become the spearhead of the attack.”
Australia believe India are susceptible to pace but Waugh also wants Lee to be able to restrict runs — particularly in-form Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman.
“Brett’s generally a strike bowler but you still want him to get the ball in the right places and not go for too many runs and he’s good enough to do that.”
By restricting scoring options, Australia hopes to pressure Dravid and Laxman into error.
However, against the exceptional concentration powers of Dravid and the hand-eye coordination of Laxman, he admitted it would be difficult.
“Like any players they’re capable of making mistakes under pressure.
“We need to get them out — we’ve talked about it and it’s about executing plans. But with great players like those guys sometimes they overcome your plans.
“Sometimes you need a little bit of luck here and there and you just have to keep plugging away at your game plan.”
While a lot rests on Lee as he bowls alongside either Brad Williams, who has played two Tests, or Nathan Bracken (one Test), Waugh said the whole team was facing its biggest challenge in years.
“For all of us it’s our biggest test for a long while,” Waugh said.
“We’ve said in the past we need a challenge to get us playing our best cricket and we won’t get a better challenge than right now.”
But with his team in the desperate situation where it cannot afford to lose, Waugh said Australia wouldn’t go into its shell and would continue to play its cricket at full speed despite the batting collapse that led to India’s four-wicket win in the second Adelaide Test last week.
Battle of the Batting Lineups
In a battle between the best batting line-ups in the history of Test cricket, Sachin Tendulkar has been missing in action — but not for much longer, according to the rival captains.
Ahead of the Boxing Day Test today, Australian captain Steve Waugh said his team and India were the two best batting teams in the game.
“If you look at the record of both these side, they’re the two best batting sides that have come up against each other in the history of Test cricket, statistically,” Waugh said yesterday.
Australia have Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting, who are all averaging over 50 in Test cricket.
India have Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Saurav Ganguly.
So far in this series, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly all have big centuries but Tendulkar has been surprisingly quiet, with a total of 38 runs in three outings.
The Aussie big four, led by Waugh’s 10,788 runs, have 23,596 between them while India’s quartet, with Tendulkar topping the list with 8,920, have 22,824 runs between them.
