Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Fourth Test preview

Tomorrow the Fourth and final Test of a contentious but, latterly at least, tightly contested series begins here in Adelaide.

India's victory in Perth has put the Australians, metaphorically speaking, on the back foot but whether Matthew Hayden's foreshadowed return and Ricky Ponting's modest form improvement will continue and be enough to reverse the result are but a couple of several interesting questions which I expect will be answered over the next few days.

For example:
  • Who will play for India? There's talk of them fielding five front line bowlers (ie bringing Harbhajan Singh back, but at whose expense isn't clear)
  • Who will play for Australia? Hayden is likely to come back for Chris Rogers; IMO Brad Hogg should replace Shaun Tait even though neither has been very penetrative to date.
  • Will the weather have any impact? Rain is forecast for some of the time, but how much is open to question. Protracted rain delays will increase the likelihood of a draw.

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