Australia vs India 2018-19: Why India should unleash four seamers at Perth and beat Australia at their own game

With the Perth pitch likely to be the ‘bounciest’ and extremely pacey according to the curator, the Australian media is agog as to how this is going to help the Australian fast bowlers in dismantling the Indian batting line up and square the series.

What is clearly forgotten is that the current Indian pace attack is one of the best going around in the world right now. Though the Australian pace attack is a potent one, they are not a superior attack to India’s by any means.

And it is not just the three frontline pacers – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma - who bowled India to victory at Adelaide, but also the two others who were on the reserves – Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav – who are all world class bowlers. Each one of them can bowl at 140kph; even Bhuvneshwar who used to primarily rely on swing, has added a couple of yards to his pace in the last couple of years.

In fact, one could even argue that the nature of the pitch at Perth has titled the balance in favour of India even further. Nathan Lyon, the Australian bowler who troubled India the most at Adelaide is going to be neutralized by the pitch at Perth. So, if they decide to play their lead spinner at Perth, he is not going to be anywhere as lethal as he was at Adelaide.

With injuries to R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma, the decision has become even easier for India. Hanuma Vihari is a like-for-like replacement for Rohit at number six. The fact that he can bowl some spin when needed, could mean that India have the luxury of falling back on him if they want to give some rest to the pacers once in a while, something they could not have done if Rohit were in the team.

On a pitch with little assistance for spinners, there is no point having Ravindra Jadeja in the team. The only decision they have to make is to choose one of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav. Either way, it will be a fearsome foursome, which should be good enough to make it 2-0 in favour of India.