Current India-Australia Test XI

Two teams. Both understand a 4-0 battering. One is playing without its first-choice captain. One was forced to play without its captain. One was dealing with transition. Another with loss. But, in the end, the teams together gave us a match that could make it to cricket’s First-match-of-the-series hall of fame. 'Together' could be ironical considering how tempers flared, largely an indication of how badly they wanted this match. And they gave it a fight that was fitting off the tragedy that struck Australian cricket. Some players were mediocre, but some rose above the occasion. Here is an attempt to look at a combined team, a team that could take the cake by the end of the series.

#12 Cheteshwar Pujara

It is still hard to come to terms with Cheteshwar Pujara not finding a spot in this team. Some captains might pick him over Ajinkya Rahane. A few might even ask for him over Shane Watson. Watson fans will cringe at this.

In terms of the runs scored alone, Pujara is a decent fit for the combined squad. He is gritty. He is technically right. He got a decent knock under his belt. A solid No.3 in Pujara badly needs a triple digit score now after a slew of starts that he has thrown away of late.

He might want to prove us wrong

#11 Ishant Sharma

Bhuvneshwar Kumar would have ideally been the right person to take the third fast bowler’s spot. Peter Siddle could have been the No.11, too, if he were the dogged, skillful Siddle we knew from the previous tour. In the first match, he was lacklustre. He is still Australia’s preferred No.3, but Mitchell Starc might be drafted in.

On present form, Ishant Sharma is not a bad pick. He is brisk, gets bounce and sometimes bowls inspired spells in rhythm.

#10 Nathan Lyon

An Australian spinner owning the spinner’s spot with India in the reckoning is remarkable. But Lyon was remarkably special. 12 wickets in the match, 7 in the second, against probably the best batsmen of spin make Lyon the spinner of the series already.

It is hard to see how Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja or Karn Sharma (if he gets another chance) can outdo Lyon’s contribution in this match. The beauty about Lyon’s bowling most importantly is that he is conventional. His off-spinners look innocuous, but they are not. He is immaculate with dropping them on the right spot. He has the drift and the turn. Good enough, any day.

#9 Ryan Harris

Ryan Harris has an unrelenting line. He moves the ball either ways. He is remarkably consistent. All through his career, he has asked the right questions to batsmen, picked wickets with the new ball. He will waltz into this side, to take the new ball along with Mitchell Johnson. Harris took just 2 in the first Test, but he is frugal and a trier. Most captains will settle for that.

#8 Mitchell Johnson

4 wickets in the first Test. Wrecker-in-chief against England, the man who brought the intimidation back into the Australian game, who picked the pieces of scary fast bowling and reimposed life in it. Mitchell Johnson wasn’t himself in the first Test. He was almost apologetic for being a fast bowler who could cause mental disintegration.

He was smashed quite a bit by Virat Kohli, the same batsman who got hit by the pacer on his helmet in the first ball of his innings. At No.8, he is a handy bat, too, an underachiever of sorts. But, bat or not, the new ball is his!

#7 MS Dhoni

It reflects very poorly on the two wicket-keepers if we pick someone not playing in the first Test, but will return in the second. But anyone who watched India’s chase, especially the last couple of hours, would know what MS Dhoni brings to the side. He will be the No.7 for the team, whether or not he will be the captain of the side, his bad record outside subcontinent notwithstanding, his not so laudable form notwithstanding.

He is still a better pick for being the keeper-batsman of the side over Wriddhiman Saha and Brad Haddin. He just brings the X-factor to the crease that neither keepers could. Saha didn’t help his case, either, by missing a vital stumping chance in the course of the game, a mistake which with players like Dhoni is often talked about much longer.

#6 Ajinkya Rahane

In Australia, Shane Watson could still make a genuine case for a No.6 if Pujara is picked at No.3. But Ajinkya Rahane will edge both to the post if only one can make it out of the three. Not just because Rahane scored more in the first Test or because Rahane has hit a purple patch. Those are good reasons. But the best reason is that Rahane can block where Watson can’t.

Rahane was reckless in the first innings, but that recklessness doesn’t match up to Watson’s who might not make it in the side on current form as a pure batsman. There will always be some who would think otherwise, but that is the beauty of the game.

#5 Steve Smith

Indian bowlers couldn’t get him out or even coax him to throw his wicket away as he kept smashing them all through his daddy hundred in the first and a quick-fire half-century in the second innings. Groomed to be Australia’s next Test captain, with Watson being his unpredictable self, Steve Smith is a captain’s dream – he can buckle down, he can be explosive and he can break partnerships.

On the field, he is electric. He is chirpy, but not caustic. He understands modern cricket. He plays orthodox if needed. And oh, that lovely, wise head of his at so young an age.

#4 Virat Kohli

Highest runs on captaincy debut. Two centuries in two innings – unheard of in Australia from a visiting captain. Virat Kohli was sublime, almost batting on his own dream pitch and not a 5th day Adelaide pitch. In Michael Clarke, he has a tough opponent for the No.4 spot, a classy one. But Clarke is sore. He is inundated with injuries and wouldn’t participate in the rest of the series.

Probably, the Australian captain might never walk in at No.4 again in whites – or even in colours. So, Kohli picks the spot for India-Australia matches, a spot that always belonged to Sachin Tendulkar. But Kohli will make the Little Master proud; in fact, he already has, reminding us of the little man waging a lost battle in Chennai against Pakistan with his Adelaide feat.

#3 Shane Watson

Shane Watson could smash the ball all over the ground. He is not your conventional No.3. He is an all-rounder. He needs to be in the team. Australia rely on him and have not yet found an ideal replacement for him. He is the maverick cricketer, Australian cricket’s sulky, moody, mercurial son. He will block a little. Only a little. Mostly, aggression is his best defence.

He will give you a few overs each innings, few incisive overs, even with his present broken, injury-prone body. He can lose his temper easily, but on song, he is a batsman that can scare bowlers, good ones. When one spot is available between Pujara and Watson, Watson might make it purely on intimidation, on who the opposition wants to see less.

#2 Murali Vijay

Murali Vijay (L)

Murali Vijay likes Australia. He scored against them in India. He is scoring against them here. Vijay is silky and gritty. He doesn’t have the brashness of Shikhar Dhawan. He doesn’t have Dhawan’s inconsistency, either.

He will fight it out. He almost did in the first Test, taking India closer to victory, before nervous 90s got the better off him; that or a tricky Nathan Lyon bowling beautifully on a tricky pitch. Only he would know. He threw a start even in the first innings, but with someone like David Warner on the other end, he could just be the opener any team with some explosiveness at the top would want.

#1 David Warner

Two centuries in two innings in the first Test. No one is surprised, for he walked into the Test riding on good form. He is hurt for his best mate. On the field, he is arrogant, a shorter, stockier version of Matthew Hayden, making up in explosiveness what he misses in size. And going one up over Hayden is a real achievement.

David Warner, like Virender Sehwag in his prime, is one of the most destructive Test openers who could steal the match in front of your eyes in less than a session.