India vs Australia 2013: Is Team India strong enough to take on the Aussies?

With both current form and the conditions favoring the home side, India goes in as the favorites in the 8 match limited over series against the visiting Australians. But not too much can be read into these factors as the last time these two sides played in a 7 match bilateral series, India went in as overwhelming favorites, only to lose it by a margin of 2-4.

In fact in the last 27 years, India have won only one bilateral one-day series against the Australians and even in that series, the first and the third matches were washed-off due to rain and India won the third match at Vizag. India has won only two bilateral series against the Australians.

Captain MS Dhoni, who is very good at achieving the un-achieved, will want to win this series at any cost and assert the supremacy of his side.

Strengths:

Traditionally India’s strength has been its batting and spin bowling. They have usually depended on their batsmen to put runs on the board and use their spinners to strangle the opposition. But from the time Rahul Dravid took over the side’s captaincy, the team has tended to chase down totals, and has been very successful at that.

Dhoni too has preferred to chase – with him being one of the best finishers in the world it certainly will not be a difficult choice to make – and that was evident in the Champions Trophy too, as he chose to bowl first every time he won the toss.

The strength of this team too is its batting and spin bowling. The batting line-up boasts of some of the most dangerous names in world cricket – when the absence of the players of the caliber and class of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir does not make a huge difference to a side, then it has to one heck of a batting line-up. The transition from the old-guard to the new faces has been quite smooth and the return of match-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh only adds strength to this line-up.

Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been giving the team great starts. Virat Kohli is one of the best in the business when it comes to building an ODI innings, Yuvraj Singh has been in sparkling touch in the A matches and Challenger Trophy, Suresh Raina is a dangerous batsman when playing in the sub-continent and not much needs to said about Dhoni. Even Ravindra Jadeja too has made his presence felt with some quick runs when needed.

The spin bowling is in the capable hands of R. Ashwin and Jadeja. They have done well in the recent series that India have played and with Amit Mishra, coming in after some good performances in the Champions League and the Zimbabwe series, Dhoni certainly has a lot of options in the spin department. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar’s abilities with the new-ball has added to India’s strengths, particularly now with two new-balls being used.

The most pleasing aspect of India’s rise to the top in one-day cricket has been its fielding. With lot of emphasis being laid of fitness and fielding, what was once a weakness has turned into a big strength for the current Indian side.

Weaknesses:

Though India are in top of the pile in the one-day rankings, they are not yet world-beaters by any means and the first man to accept it would be the Captain cool. Pace bowling has been India’s weakness for a long time, but Kumar’s strikes with the new-ball has to a certain extent ironed out that flaw.

But death bowling continues to remain a worry. Dhoni prefers to chase as he thinks he can cover up for the deficiencies in the bowling unit with the side’s batting abilities. Batting first, the batsmen could be in a lot of pressure in setting a good score for the bowlers to defend.

The dew in the grounds at this time of the year could also affect the Indian team as they are heavily reliant on their spinners and this may prevent Dhoni from fielding both Ashwin and Mishra in the same eleven.

Trumpcard:

Yuvraj’s return will be a major addition to this side as he not only a match-winning batsman, but also a useful limited overs bowler. Dhoni has mentioned in the past that he missed Yuvi’s left-arm spin as it gives him an additional option. A lean and fitter Yuvraj would certainly add to the fielding abilities of the side.

Another major trump-card for MS Dhoni will be Bhuvaneshwar Kumar with the new-ball. His wickets with the new-ball will provide the opportunity for the spinners to express themselves, as it will be very difficult to contain the set batsmen, especially bowling second when the dew could set-in.