India and Australia set off in the second Test of their four match series against each other on Friday when the two sides head to Delhi to reach the halfway mark in what was an extremely anticipated battle before it began.
You would have to say some of the anticipation has come off of it with the ease in which India won the opening game but Australia rarely go without a fight so you would imagine they will aim to come back with something to avoid going two down with two to play.
India
As we said before the opening match, it is all well and good having conditions to suit your style but you still have to play them well enough to come out on top and India did exactly that in the opening game. On a track which turned pretty much from the beginning they made sure their spinners were on the money and pretty much right from an early stage there only looked to be one winner of the match. They will be looking for a lot more of the same here.
The good thing for India is there is probably more to come from them on the batting front too and when you consider how on top of Australia those spinners were that is a good position to be in. The other positive for India is they have plenty of bowling resources to call upon too should they need them so the number one ranked side in the world in this format look to have everything in place to extend that position.
Australia
I think Australia knew the size of the task before they arrived in India but I can’t help but think they might not have given themselves the best chance of being prepared for what was to come. To not play a single match in India conditions ahead of a series they recognised as a big one which was going to be tough seemed a little folly before the series and looks plain right daft now. For all they tried to replicate conditions back home that was never going to happen.
The good thing for Australia heading into this second match is that they know exactly what the size of the task is now. Unfortunately they also know that they need a serious improvement if they are going to be competitive here. There will be some natural improvement now they have played in these conditions but they’ll need more on top of that, especially from their batters, too many of whom looked like fish out of water in that opening match.
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Team News
You wouldn’t think India would need to make a change to their side after such a convincing victory but it would appear that they are going to with Shreyas Iyer set to replace Suryakumar Yadav in an otherwise unchanged XI.
It goes without saying that after the sort of drubbing Australia received in the opening game that they will make changes here. If Cameron Green is fit he could replace Peter Handscomb and allow Australia to play an extra spinner. They might realise they made an error dropping Travis Head and look to rectify that too.
Betting
It is hard to see Australia getting anything from this one. They might get a bit closer than they did in the opening game but all the signs are that this Delhi pitch is going to spin right from the off and probably spin pretty sharply and India will be licking their lips at that. Clearly India are plenty short enough to win the match though so we need to think of another way in and that comes in the form of Ravi Ashwin and his first innings wickets.
His line is 2.5 and although it was Ravi Jadeja who took the five in the first innings in the opening game, the seamers got rid of a couple of left-handers which might not happen in the first dig here and almost certainly won’t if India bat first. Even with Jadeja taking five wickets in the first innings in Nagpur there were still three for Ashwin to get and then he took five in the second innings where he took the new ball, something I would expect him to do should India bowl second. Ashwin is the only spinner who takes the ball away from the lefties and there are enough of them in this Australia outfit to keep him honest. I expect three more first innings wickets from the Indian mystery spinner.
Tips
Back R.Ashwin – Over 2.5 first innings wickets for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
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