Fight back on the cards

Australia were definitely the better team in the Bangalore test, there are no doubts about that but I'm certain Saurav's India are going to come back strongly in Chennai. The absence of a player as great as Tendulkar will affect any cricket team in the world, but it should be kept in mind that we need to think long term and that Sachin's injury should be allowed to heal properly even if it means that he misses the whole series. It might sound ridiculous, am sure many of you will feel he can't miss the remaining tests, but if the injury doesn't heal properly and occurs again it could even shorten his career!

A better batting performance can be expected in the Chennai test.Sehwag looked in good touch in the first innings before receiving a shocker in the second. VVS laxman too looked in superb touch before being bowled by a beauty from Warne.Kumble and Harbhajan bowled very well and Australia will not find it easy in Chennai.

One encouraging sign in the first test was that India refused to go down without fighting. Few teams recover from 19/4 to post a score of of 239. Irfan Pathan is showing maturity beyond his years and is looking good to be classed as a genuine all rounder. At last, the search for a Kapil Dev might have ended!

India should persist with the Chopra-Sehwag combination as they have done very well against Australia earlier which was the key to India's success down under. However i would seriously consider replacing an out of form Yuvraj Singh with either Kaif or Sridharan Sriram for the Chennai test. It would be a perfect place for Sriram to make his debut, given that his home ground is Chennai.

India came back to win the series after being walloped by 10 wickets in 2001 (Mumbai) and its definitely not beyond them to do it again.

Karthik