By IANS
Sydney : Australia may well pound India with four-pronged pace attack in the upcoming Test series.
Cricket Australia’s selection chairman, Andrew Hilditch, said he did not rule out the possibility of playing four specialist pacemen with part-spin coming in from Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke.
“We made it pretty clear before first Test selection that we consider our best balance will contain a spinner, but there are going to be various conditions where a four-pronged pace attack will not be ruled out,” Hilditch was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herlad.
“It will all come down to the conditions at that time and where we are playing.”
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) curator Tony Ware expects the Boxing Day Test wicket to offer plenty of bounce and carry and turn on days three and four.
With pacers Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clarke looking good to make the team, tearaway pacer Shaun Tait could be roped in. Now free from injury on the right elbow, Tait, who has not played for Australia since the World Cup, is being tested out in domestic cricket this week.
If he performs and selectors decide to go with an all-pace attack, Tait could well be in the Australian team for the Boxing Day test against India.
Talk of a four-pronged pace attack has begun following fitness problems of spinner Stuart MacGill. It is still felt that wrist spinner Brad Hogg, who is in great form, might be the replacement, but no one is ruling out playing four specialist pacemen.
While Lee has been the tearaway bowler, Johnson cemented his place in the side following the retirement of Glenn McGrath. He has shown great variety and has been very useful. Steady Stuart Clarke has taken another place.
Tait does not see any problems in two tearaways playing together.
“The fact is we (he and Lee) are wicket-takers. People look into it too deeply, I think. They think, ‘He sprays ’em, and he sprays ’em as well,’ but the fact is we bowl teams out, and you can’t win a game without doing that. So why not play both of us? I don’t see the problem,” Tait said.
Tait, who is also likely to figure in the Chappell-Hadlee one-day series against New Zealand, said he was coming close to 150 km per hour before his elbow problems last month.