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NEWS India-Australia-West Indies Tri-Series>Will India turn the tables on Australia? 11th Sept 2006 22.11 IST By Manish Kumar While Australia look the favourites to win the Tri-series in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, India have the arsenal in their ranks to turn the tables on the world champions. The three-time world champions Australia are currently and justifiably ranked at the top of the ICC table.
The new vice-captain Michael Hussey (replacing Adam Gilchrist who is rested) has rapidly climbed the steps of success in international cricket. His batting average in both Tests and ODIs is over 70, he currently tops the list of best averages ever in ODI cricket and his strike rate of 99.27 is also the highest in the Australian ODI career records list. Apart from Ponting and Hussey the Aussie batting mainstays will be Matthew Lawrence Hayden , Damien Richard Martyn , Michael Clarke and Simon Katich . Andrew Symonds will fill up as an all-rounder. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left hand opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one-day level. He is world renowned for being a large unit with a powerful aggressive style of batting and has spread fear into bowlers around the world. Martyn is known as a batsman with 'classical' technique who is quite capable of building an innings and was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year as a result of his performances in The Ashes in the summer of 2001. Clarke has made a name for himself on the international scene for his aggressive yet mature batting ability and Katich is an accomplished left-handed batsman who is well regarded for his timing and placement and draws comparison to Michael Gwyl Bevan . Symonds is a talented powerful right-handed batsman, who can also bowl off spin or medium pace, making him a good all-rounder. He is an outstanding fielder as well, able to take catches well and with powerful throws and excellent reflexes and is known for scoring runs at an excellent strike rate of over 90. The Aussie bowling department will be powered by Glenn Donald McGrath and Brett Lee . He may be making a comeback to international cricket, but McGrath is one of the most highly regarded fast bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket since the mid-1990s to 2006. He holds the world record for the highest number of Test wickets by a fast bowler. Lee is one of the fastest bowlers in the world and at his fastest is capable of bowling at 160 kmph or 99 mph. His fastest recorded delivery to date is at 160.8 kmph. Lee ranks with Shoaib Akhtar as the fastest bowler in contemporary cricket and one of the fastest the game has known. While Australia are at the top of the ICC rankings, India have just climbed to the third position and have amongst their ranks such match winners, who if click, can give even the best in the business a run for their money. First comes Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar who holds several batting records, including the most Test centuries and the most one-day international centuries, and was rated in an article by Wisden in 2002 as the second greatest Test batsman ever, after Sir Don Bradman. Sachin is the first cricketer and fastest cricketer to cross 10,000-run mark, 11,000-run mark, 12,000-run mark, 13,000 run-mark and 14,000 run-mark in ODI cricket. He is the only cricketer to cross 14,000-run mark in ODIs and holds the record for scoring 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year. He has done it six times – 1994 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003. In 1998 Sachin made 1,894 ODI runs, still the record for ODI runs by any batsman in any given calendar year and in the same year hit 9 ODI centuries, the highest by any player in a year. India is led by Rahul Dravid who is one of the top-ranked batsmen in world cricket and is the only batsman to have been involved in two ODI partnerships exceeding 300 runs. Dravid was the first batsman to be involved in a 300 run partnership along with Sourav Ganguly in the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Taunton. Involved in the highest partnership in the history of ODI cricket with a 331 run partnership along with Tendulkar against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999-2000. Dravid has the highest winning percentage among all the captains who have captained their sides in at least 5 ODIs. He has won 23, lost 13 and had no result in 1 – this winning percentage of 62.16 displaces Ajay Jadeja 's 61.54. He is tied with Sachin in fourth place for having captained India in the most victorious matches and has the highest ODI batting average as captain of 45.58 (as of 4/7/06), among all captains who have captained more than 10 ODIs. Apart from Sachin and Dravid, Indian batting is powered by blitzkrieg of Virender Shewag and Mahendra Dhoni , blessed with the style of Yuvraj Singh and aided by the cool temperament of Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina . Sehwag has scored over 4,000 ODI runs at a strike rate of 96.98 runs per 100 balls, which makes him one of the fastest batsmen in the world to do so. He has also scored over 7,000 runs in first-class cricket at an average of more than 50 with 23 first class centuries. Few batsmen have made a more shattering impact on their emergence than Dhoni in international cricket. In April 2006 Dhoni was briefly ranked number one in the official ICC ODI rankings and is currently ranked number four after a poor series in the West Indies. In April 2006, Dhoni's batting average in ODI cricket was just over 50, the highest by any Indian player with more than 20 innings. With a career ODI batting strike rate of more than 100 he remains the only batsman with the unique double of a 50+ average scored at more than a run a ball. Currently, Dhoni has one of the highest strike rates in the world (103.00 runs per hundred balls). With 44 sixes in 38 ODI innings, Dhoni has hit more sixes than he's played international matches. Apart from being a brilliant fielder, Yuvraj has had a recent run of good form in the ODI format of the game. He was named as the man of the series in three consecutive series, against South Africa (joint with Irfan Pathan), and then against Pakistan and England , in which he scored three centuries and four half-centuries in fifteen matches, which propelled him into the top ten of the ICC ODI batting rankings. One of only five cricketers from Uttar Pradesh to have made it to the national side, Kaif is a very fast runner between the wickets and an excellent cover fielder, most notably his agility and throwing accuracy. With the bat Kaif tends to stick to the quick running and occasional boundary and has in his own way however become indispensable to the Indian one-day team. Kaif’s state mate Raina is also an excellent fielder and along with Yuvraj at backward point, Kaif in the covers and Raina at mid-off, the offside field looks like a fortress – kind of one very hard to breach. On England’s recent tour of India, Raina showed his ability with the bat by playing two match winning knocks in Faridabad and Goa. The Indian all-rounder slot belongs to Irfan Pathan , as part of a reallocation of responsibilities under coach Greg Chappell, who has identified potential in Pathan's batting and recently used him as both an opener and a top order batsman in late 2005 in one-day cricket. Pathan’s spell in the final match against Pakistan in the 2004 tour was arguably his best performance in ODI cricket. His trademark weapon is an inswinger, which darts into a right-hand batsman, and he also has the ability to reverse swing the old ball. In the ODI format, Pathan has been particularly impressive, frequently giving India early breakthroughs. In the fast bowling department, Pathan will be aided by Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel . Apart from setting a world record for the fastest 50 wickets in ODI cricket, Agarkar also holds the world record of being the quickest player in terms of least number of matches played to have taken 200 wickets and complete 1000 runs in ODI cricket. Munaf has proved that he is arguably the fastest bowler in India, bowling regularly at speeds of over 87 mph and has produced balls at a pace over the 90 mph mark. In the Indian spin department Harbhajan Singh will be calling the shots as an attacking bowler who exercises great command over the ball, has the ability to vary his length and pace, and can bowl the doosra. His main wicket-taking ball, however, is one that climbs wickedly on the unsuspecting batsman from a good length, forcing him to alter his stroke at the last second. Statistically, his bowling is most effective against the West Indies and Australia. The West Indies are ranked seventh in the ICC table and is led by Brian Lara , who is acknowledged as one of the world's greatest batsmen, having several times topped the Test batting rankings and being the current world record holder for the highest individual innings score and the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket. In May 2006, Lara led the West Indies to successful One-Day series victories against Zimbabwe and India, has scored 18 centuries in one-day cricket with an average of over 41 an innings and at a strike rate of close to 80 and on his day has the capability to murder any bowling attack in the world. Other than Lara, the West Indian batting mainstays are vice-captain Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan , Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Christopher Henry Gayle . The West Indies may not be a very strong side but they have the ability to surprise all – glaring examples of which are their winning the Champions Trophy in 2004 and then beating India 4-1 in May 2006. Also View In-Depth Coverage: India-Australia-West Indies Tri-Series Team Page: India Team Page: Australia | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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