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Australia

Text: Daniel Laidlaw

In accordance with Australia's bowling, India's series batting was split into two distinct phases - pre-Laxman and post-Laxman. Before the series-changing partnership between Laxman and Dravid in the second innings of the second Test, India batted without confidence as Australia's bowlers successfully implemented their plans. During and after it, India registered two totals that forced Australia to come from behind rather than make the running. Generally, India's batting took a while to become used to Australia's attack but once it did resembled an impenetrable wall. Laxman made the difference, removing much of the run-scoring burden from the established stars.

	Shiv Sunder Das 173 runs at 28.8: Didn't receive the necessary breaks early in the series but displayed the temperament to make him a success against the Aussies: technically secure while hungry for runs.	Sandagoppan Ramesh 162 runs at 27: Let India down at the top of the order with loose play outside off stump. Looked exceedingly susceptible to an edge into the slips cordon by waving bat indiscriminately
	VVS Laxman 503 runs at 83.8: Easy to see now why the Australians held him in high regard.	Sachin Tendulkar 304 runs at 50.7: Not Australia's chief tormentor this time but made an impact nevertheless and remained in a class of his own.
	Sourav Ganguly 106 runs at 17.7: However legitimate the criticism of Ganguly, you cannot argue with the results.	Rahul Dravid 338 runs at 56.3: Struggled initially but benefited enormously from the series-turning partnership with Laxman and ultimately played an instrumental role in the series.

	India had an abnormally high turnover of personnel in its bowling department considering it won the series. Mostly this was caused by injury but also because it opted to change its left-arm support spinner in each Test. Used nine different specialist bowlers during the series. Fortunately it did not matter a great deal because the wicket-taking responsibility was largely accepted by one man - Harbhajan. The rest of the attack became a crew to his efforts.

	Harbhajan Singh 32 wickets at 17: Harbhajan was India's bowling attack.Harbhajan produced a one-man show.	Zaheer Khan 3 wickets at 63: Played two Tests after replacing Agarkar and although he claimed only 3 wickets, bowled impressively in spells with his pace and angle of delivery.
	Javagal Srinath Srinath and Agarkar played the first Test before being stuck by injury and illness respectively.	R Sanghvi, 2 wickets at 39 V Raju, 1 wicket at 116 N Kulkarni, 1 wicket at 137 S Bahutule, 2 wickets at 51 Design: Dominic Xavier

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