Symonds gets a call from Skipper Ponting

Ricky Ponting did the right thing at a time when the team still has not left the Australian shores for the India tour by calling up Andrew Symonds into the team. His experience can be hardly missed by any captain, but the Team Management did show some concern at Symonds's behavior of late, I think the team sent him a strong signal that they need a total commitment from his side and he seems to have understood the message. Australia will now have a semblance of a balanced team with many fresh faces in the team with hardly any experience in the sub-continent conditions where the ball plays differently than the hard Australian pitches.

Indian seasoned campaigners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh will be looking forward to the challenge in the home conditions where they are more suited best and would definitely like to capitalise on any chinks in Australian batting order, Ponting has been out a number of times to Harbhajan and it will be an interesting duel to watch between the bat and ball. Shane Watson riding on his brilliant stint with the Rajasthan Royals is more experienced to the conditions now and might get a chance in the Australian playing level.

India has a solid batting line up with Virender Sehwag at the top gives this Indian team a solid look, but Brett Lee given his speed and accuracy can cause a lot of problems specially when the ball is new and swings a lot and could reverse it too in the later part of an innings when the ball gets older. It will be interesting to see the Australian bowling line up, particularly the spin department with new names such as McGain turn out to be. It will be a good learning tour for the debutant's and they can count on this tour with the experience they gain out of it.

Shane Warne made his debut against the Indian team in Australia and his figures where not that attractive in his first match of his career as India at that time had all very good players of Spin including Ravi Shastri. And that might have given Shane a good starting experience as when you bowl against good quality batsmen who play spin well, you will learn faster. With all the issues now seem to settle down, lets hope for a good Cricket Test Series in the coming days.