All the tough talk by Team India now has  a hollow ring to it as the Aussies thrashed us with clinical precision in the first test at Melbourne, by over 300 runs and a day to spare. Recalling the newspaper headlines after the opening day like “Australia Krumble” etc., now make me really sick.

Within the third day, Australia had got a firm grip on the match, and our over hyped batting line-up simply capitulated to the relentless Aussie attack, failing to cross 200 in both innings. Barring Tendulkar’s cameo in the first innings, there was hardly any semblance of a fight.

Dravid’s batting seemed especially painful, as he seemed totally unable to penetrate the field placing, and each run that he took seemed like a bonus. If he fancied himself another Sunil Gavaskar in terms of occupation of the crease, he should have also tried to emulate Gavaskar’s ability to rotate the strike and keep the scoreboard moving. His inability to do so meant the incoming batsmen were under tremendous pressure.

Being an opener shouldn’t mean having a defensive mindset, as Mathew Hayden, the Man of the Match, will truly testify. He is always looking to dominate the bowling, and if Dravid had done the same and got 40-50 odd runs to his name in the number of balls he faced in both innings, that would have just given the Aussie bowlers something to think about, as well as eased the pressure on the other batsmen.

The Aussies under Ponting have now won 15 successive Tests, and will look to equal their own record under Steve Waugh, in the next test at Sydney on 02nd January. The last time around, India had halted their winning run in the famous Kolkatta test. Can we do so again ? I sure hope we do, but there is a lot of learning and catching up to do, and not too much time left.