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Podcast: India's tour of Aus
Published on Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 16:36, Updated on Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 10:34 in 
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Is Yuvraj Singh a good test batsman, what to make of Anil Kumble’s captaincy and is India the clear No. 2 in test cricket? CNN-IBN’s H R Venkatesh speaks to Mukul Kesavan, cricket writer, author and teacher for answers to these questions and more, on the conclusion of the four-test India-Australia series.
H R Venkatesh: Hello and welcome to The News Junkie Podcast. This week, we're going to be discussing India's tour of Australia, the four-test series, the result 1-2 in Australia's favour, what it means for Team India and really, where does India go from here. Joining me is Mukul Kesavan - writer, teacher and writer of one of the more popular blogs on cricket on Cricinfo.com, thanks very much for joining in.
Mukul Kesavan: Thank you for having me Venkatesh.
H R Venkatesh: My first question, Ricky Ponting was asked after that last match, the Adelaide match if Team India is the No. 2 test side in the world now, we've had this sort of debate for the last few years, but based on the last few results, what is your opinion?
Mukul Kesavan: I think formally we are the No. 2 in the ICC test rankings. But, as nearly everybody has said, over the past 7 years dating back to 2001, we've been the one team that has been competitive against Australia, I think the only team that pushed Australia was England in that last series in England, but that didn't last very long. So, I think it would be fair to say we're the second best test team in the world.
H R Venkatesh: From Australia's point of view, we've seen in the last couple of years 4-5 people, key people retiring. Adam Gilchrist recently, but of course last year it was Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn. Would it be fair to say Australia is a team on the wane and perhaps India could eye that No. 1 test position, unofficial position sometime in the future?
Mukul Kesavan: I think it's early days yet, because if you look at Ponting's achievement, 16 tests on the trot, they won them all continuously, not a single draw in the whole lot, it's hard to think of circumstances where another team, whether India or any other could match that. But I think you're right. If it's not a team on the wane, it's certainly a team that has plateaued. Once Gilchrist goes, as he will at the end of this one-day series, and perhaps in the not-too-distant future that extraordinary champion, Matthew Hayden at the top of the order, then Australia will have difficulty. I think we saw this with the bowling attack.
The Australian bowling attack, despite the heroics of Brett Lee is possibly the weakest I've seen in a long time. You don't have a great penetrative spinner. I think they have vigorous, young, interesting seam bowlers, who aren't a threatening. You know the idea that a Stuart Clark can replace a Glenn McGrath would make an Indian fan laugh because McGrath induced a sense of menace. You didn't want him, you didn't like him. He brought an aura of almost malign efficiency into the arena. I don't think Australia has any other bowler who does that.
H R Venkatesh: A word now on individual players from India. Sachin Tendulkar, that big name - in the last few months, or weeks we've seen the Sachin Tendulkar we're used to, of course we hadn't seen that Sachin in the last 3 or 4 years, what do you think has changed?
Mukul Kesavan: Not just in the last three of four years Venkatesh, I can remember that I was introduced to the new, sober Sachin Tendulkar in the Chennai test of 2001 which I actually watched all five days of at the ground where he made a very boring, very competent, very crucial century and seemed to park the old Sachin Tendulkar in some garage somewhere.
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The audio should have been cleaner, but that apart it was great!
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