India Australia Second Test Day Three Preview

So, here we are.

A day after the embarrassment that was the second day, most Indian fans have the brutal tour of England flashing in their minds. So what's next? Here are a few things we can hope to look forward to.

Honestly, there are two ways to approach today. The first is still to retain hope for a draw or an implausible victory. To have this be even plausible to consider, India have to strike in the first hour. India is down 291 at the start of the second day and likely have to bowl Australia out inside the next 100 to even have a shot, implausible as it will be. For this to happen Dhoni will need to man up. Dhoni was once known as an aggressive captain. The past two overseas tour has shown the flaw of such a categorization. To even give India a shot, Dhoni will need to  set attacking fields such as a 7-2 off side, bowling outside off or 6-3 with a short leg. Zaheer, Ishant and Yadav will have to bowl the proper line rather than simply bowling.

Alas, at this point this seems unlikely. Therefore, we can look for some moral victories. Among somethings to watch for. Avoiding an innings defeat. Sehwag spending more time batting than bowling. An Indian reaching a hundred, in batting this time. Sachin getting an over. Virat getting a half century. Gambhir looking better than Phil Hughes for once. Less than four men on the boundary to tail enders. 

Get ready, this will be a long day. 

160kph - The Quick Hits: India - Australia Border - Gavaskar Trophy Second Test Day 2 Bullet Review

• Embarassing.
• Poor bowling. Poor captaining. Poor effort.
• No bowlers bowled well today. Not a single one.
• I don't think Clarke has missed a ball bowled at his pads. Yet India keeps doing it.
• Ganguly was giving Dhoni a master class on how to captain - From the commentary box. 
• Defensive fields do not work. Especially when you are losing by 200+ and the batsmen are more than set.
• Virender Sehwag has spent more time bowling than batting. Make of that what you will. 
• Sehwag had a strech of a no ball four followed by letting the ball slip out before full delivery and having it land behind him. He would go on to bowl more overs for the rest of the day than all but Ashwin.
• Sehwag does not look like same bowler post shoulder surgery. Not a threat at all.
• Why was a Sachin not given the ball? His variations would be hard pressed to be worse than what the other Indian bowlers were offering.
• Zaheer looked terrible with the second new ball. Looked to be giving less than maximum effort in his run in and placement of delivery. No swing at all. 
• Ishant Sharma looked the best of the three bowlers but was the first to get a 100 - hundred runs allowed at more than 4 an over. 
• Yadav was poor with his line. He works best when bowling his natural out swinger in the full. Bowled too short too often and onto the pads or angling on to middle and leg stump. Poor line against excellent players off the pad.
• India's only hope is to score 700ish like they did two tours ago in Australia. 
• Finally, worst for last, Dhoni's field placements were terrible. Sachin was at deep point for several overs when Ashwin bowled a middle to leg line and not a single ball went to him during Ashwin's spell. There were too often when there were no slips at all. Defensive fields did not work at all as Australia managed to ramp up the scoring rate against the field. The Australians have shown a simple game plan that is easy to follow. Bowl off or outside off stump. Have a 7-2 or 6-3 offside field and the wickets will eventually come.