Onus on top-order to fire against Proteas

Dhaka, Jan. 28: India fly out of Bangladesh having accomplished their mission and almost immediately face opposition of a far superior quality in Graeme Smith’s men than they did in the course of the two Test matches at Chittagong and here.

Wednesday’s 10-wicket win at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on the fourth day gave Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side their fifth series victory on the trot. It also set things up nicely for the two-Test series against the team who last beat them at home, by an innings and more at Ahmedabad in early 2008.
In the two years since then, India have lost only twice, both to Sri Lanka during the 2-1 Test series defeat in 2008. While injuries on this tour have cut deeply into their batting resources, they have always been a hard side to beat at home, and Dhoni will certainly put his best foot forward to see that the proud record stay intact.
While Bangladesh are far from being top-drawer opposition, the Indian performance here suggests many positives. The biggest is the continuing development of Zaheer Khan since his return from injury. He finished the series with 15 wickets at a cost of 293 runs besides career-best figures of 7/87 in the second innings of the second Test.
More than just the statistics, Zaheer demonstrated that he has come back a better bowler. He used the width of the crease, changed angles and lengths to probe away at the batsmen and even when under the hammer, refused to back away. His first 10-for in a Test was a fitting reward on a track that had very little to offer to the bowlers after the first day and a half.
Ishant Sharma too showed the worst of his form slump has been left behind with a series aggregate of nine wickets from the two matches and while the batting sparked to life in patches, it was enough for the none-too-threatening Tigers’ attack.
Sachin Tendulkar’s two centuries and Gautam Gambhir’s continued run of success were tempered by the possible elimination of Dhaka centurion Rahul Dravid from atleast part of the South Africa series.
The elegant veteran has been in great heart with three hundreds in his last five matches, and like Tendulkar, seems to just be getting better and better, as is fellow-stylist Venkatasai Laxman, now a sneeze away from the 7,000-run mark in Tests.
Since Dravid and Yuvraj Singh — another victim of the injury blight here — will sit out against the Proteas in the first Test, filling their places will be relative tyros — S. Badrinath and Murali Vijay. As such the pressure to tackle the Proteas will squarely be on Gambhir, Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, besides the captain.
What Dhoni’s side can certainly expect is some concentrated short-pitched bowling from Dale Steyn and Co.
The Indians were badly exposed here by the short ball — both during the tri-series and Tests — and the message would have gone out quite clearly.
It is another matter that the Proteas are in a bit of disarray themselves with coach Mickey Arthur stepping down two days ago and the Mike Procter-led selection panel sacked en masse within the next 24 hours.
South Africa have shown — like Pakistan — they can set aside off-field worries to concentrate on the job at hand. And there is no better way to stop wagging tongues than success, regardless of whether they are in Delhi or Johannesburg.
Five series wins in a row makes for an impressive record since the loss in Sri Lanka. India have seen off Australia, England and Sri Lanka at home, and New Zealand and Bangladesh away. Wednesday’s result was also India sixth win from seven matches against the Tigers.
They will not be at full strength, but plenty of positives will have flown home with the squad that returned on Thursday from Dhaka.

Rahul Banerji

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