An enjoyable series to look forward to

BANGALORE, MARCH 24. With the Test series over and the whites exchanged for bright, multi-coloured uniforms, India and Australia will again lock horns in a tense battle in Bangalore today. Huge crowds, plenty of colour and fast, furious action packed cricket is what you can expect from the One-day series opener.

Both sides have made the now regular adjustments to their respective squads, so there will be plenty of new faces on show for the spectators.

We have made several changes with Darren Lehmann, Ian Harvey, Michael Bevan, Nathan Bracken and Andrew Symonds all arriving over the past week to join our squad. With the late withdrawal of Jason Gillespie, New South Wales all-rounder Shane Lee will be linking up with us to take his place.

All the above players have played fantastic one-day cricket for Australia over the past few seasons and will be keen to test themselves in Indian conditions.

Bevan is a man that all Indian cricket supporters will recognize, as he is rated as one of the best batsman in the world in the short version of the game. He has been in scintillating form for his State side in domestic cricket in Australia and after 154 games he still maintains an average of over 50 at international level. His left-arm leg spin will also be quite an added bonus for Steve Waugh to call on.

Nathan Bracken is a new name that not many people here will know. The big left arm fast bowler made his surprise debut in the Australian summer this season and proved immediately that he is up to the pressures of top level cricket with some terrific performances. He is very handy with the new ball, but equally effective late in the match when the ball has deteriorated and there is a hint of reverse swing.

Our form in One-day cricket prior to making our way to India had been very good.

We were able to maintain an unbeaten record in the Carlton and United Series in Australia when the West Indies and Zimbabwe joined us in the triangular event.

There were many fine contributions from everybody throughout the season, though Mark Waugh was the stand out performer with his consistent batting at the top of the order.

However, something we are aware of is that our last defeat in the one-day arena was at the hands of a very fired up Indian side in the ICC Trophy tournament in Kenya.

Yuveraj Singh was the star performer that day, but what shone out brightly was the intensity in the fielding of the Indians.

There were several sharp catches taken and one or two amazing run outs that changed the whole match.

The standard of fielding set by the Indian Test side in the recent series shows that this is an area that everybody has worked hard at and the results are showing.

It will be interesting to see how effective the off- spin of Harbhajan Singh is on the more batsman friendly one-day pitches. He is riding a huge wave of success at the moment, so we will certainly be treating him with the respect that is due.

Three years ago, India dominated us in the preliminary games of the tri-series, which included Zimbabwe, although we did fight back to win the final at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in New Delhi. Those matches were high scoring games and I am sure that will be the case this time around.

It is a tough ask on the many players from both sides that played in the Tests to back up straight away in the one-day series. Ideally another couple of days to refresh ourselves would have been nice, but with so much cricket on the calendar around the world, there is little time off on any tours these days.

The Test series was a huge challenge for both sides with the Indians taking the honours.

It's back to 0-0 now and although the squads have changed quite a bit, I am sure the standard of cricket will be tough, high class and most importantly, very enjoyable.

By Adam Gilchrist

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