1st Test - Australia v India at Adelaide

The India-Australia Test series will take place in the gloom of the Phil Hughes mishap. And yet cricket must go on, much like it did before the heartbreak. Hughes tried to hook a bouncer, like batsmen have done perhaps since bowling went over-arm, and was hit, like countless others have been while attempting the stroke. But his passing means that this is the most unspeakable cricket tragedy in memory. It will never be forgotten.

And yet cricket will not really change. Fast bowlers will continue to pound deliveries as hard as they can into the middle the pitch hoping they will rise to uncomfortable heights and challenge batsmen's technique and courage. The bouncer is as legitimate a part of the fast bowlers weaponry, as the googly is a part of the wrist spinner's arsenal.

The fact that a hard ball travelling at high pace can do serious damage should not count against those who trade in fast bowling. After all, there is no prescribed limit as to how fast one can bowl a cricket ball, much like there is no prescribed limit as to how much spin a slow bowler can impart. Besides, in this era when so much is weighted in favour of the batsman nothing should be done to tilt the scales even further.

The first Test of India's Australian visit has been moved back, rightly, in order to give players more time to grieve for Hughes. Come December 9th, however, when both teams will report to the Adelaide Oval, I'm sure the hosts will be ready to play hard.

Far from dampening their competitive fire, the memory of their fallen comrade will serve to intensify their drive to win. David Warner and Shane Watson will be as forthright as ever; Michael Clarke as solid and as gluttonous; Chris Rogers as circumspect. Peter Siddle will be as steady as always; Ryan Harris as skillful and as demanding; Mitchell Johnson as rapid and as frightening.

India are coming off a disappointing Test series against England; one that they began brightly, even winning the second Test to take the lead, only to thereafter fade dramatically and fall close to rock-bottom at the end. They should perform better this coming series, but that might only be because they could scarcely have sunk any lower there. When you hit bottom the only place to go is up.

One might be tempted to think that since England administered such a humiliation upon India in the Tests then how much worse will the visitors fare against the Aussies. The last time England ventured down under, remember, they suffered a 5-0 whitewash and left in total disarray. But one reason cricket is such a great game is that it does not usually countenance such linear results; each team poses different challenges. Nonetheless, it is almost safe to wager, that in their home conditions, Australia is almost invincible at the moment.

There is really one overriding reason for this: Mitchell Johnson. This is not to say that Australia can't win without him; they have a number of other players who are undoubtedly top class. But with him in their ranks, bowling as he did last summer, Australia is pretty near unbeatable.

England, who not long before had bested a Johnson-less Australia when they visited, failed disastrously to cope with the rejuvenated speedster last summer. And those who felt that South Africa would not be similarly decimated when Australia travelled there shortly afterwards, were surprised when the pacer blasted out 12 wickets during the first Test at Centurion, and, if anything, was even more terrifying then than he was in the Ashes.

Recently, Australia badly lost two Tests against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Pakistani batsmen, especially Younis Khan, thrived in docile conditions that sapped some of the sting of Johnson's thunderbolts, making him a more manageable proposition. The left-handed pacer still proved very troublesome at times, but in that environment he was a storm that could be weathered. They dared not take liberties with him, and despite his strong winds he was unable to flatten everything in sight.

Yet, if those same Pakistani batsmen, who racked up nine centuries among them in the two Tests, were to confront Johnson and his cohorts in Australian arenas, things would be markedly different. Balls that barely cleared stump height on the easy-paced UAE surfaces would fly off Australian pitches as if on springs. Batting would be much less comfortable; Johnson would be much more menacing.

It is this menace that India's batsmen will find daunting. This is not a slight on them; Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rehane, and Shikar Dhawan did little as a unit in England, but they are potentially a most formidable batting line up. In subcontinent conditions, I would back them to run up big scores against any assembly of bowlers, but they will find Mitchell Johnson too hot to handle in Australia, just like the English batsmen did.

That is, of course, if Johnson turns up in Adelaide showing the kind of fitness and form he did last summer. If he reports in the kind of form that allowed him to reduce a rather haughty England side to total rubble, knocking them off their high horse; if he reports in the kind of form that allows him to regularly send down deliveries over 150 kph, daring the most capable of batsmen to push forward; if he hits the kind of form that prompted many to recall the days of Thomson and Lillee and the West Indies pace juggernaut, then India are in for a very difficult time.

Still, the Phil Hughes tragedy will hover over the entire series. Players, I predict, will be on their best behaviour. There will be little sledging, if any. If any words are said in the middle it is unlikely they will be mean-spirited ones. No player will threaten another with injury, or taunt another for being scared. But the play will be hard; there will be no compromise. That is how Phil would have wanted it.
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