 India kick off Australian tour against a weak opponent
19th Dec 2007 17:04 IST
Agencies
A weak opponent and a familiar pitch is not an ideal preparation before the gruelling series against Australia, but India will have to contend with that when they take on Victoria in their lone pre-Test three day warm-up game in Melbourne on Thursday.
Anil Kumble's men are unlikely to meet strong rivals and the pitch at Junction Oval in Melbourne is expected to stay low as it was the case back home on turfs in Kolkata, if not Bangalore, against Pakistan.
It would mean poor preparation for the tourists who have won just four of the 32 Tests in nearly six decades of visit to the Australian shores and are yet to claim a Test series win Down Under.
India is expected to field their likely Test XI, which means that Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Pankaj Singh and Irfan Pathan will remain on the bench.
It would be interesting to see whether Rahul Dravid comes out to open and how fit are a few members of the side after their recent injury travails.
All eyes will be on Sachin Tendulkar and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan who missed out the final Test against Pakistan in Bangalore because of knee and ankle strain.
Vice captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni too skipped the Bangalore game because of ankle strain and split webbing in his left palm.
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