India rest hopes of victory on old fire of big bats

On Thursday, India will be thrown into the cauldron of Test cricket against the best team in the world. Victory won't come easy and the onus of delivering it has been placed on the shoulders of the tried and the tested in the hope that their bats will find the fire of old.
Rahul Dravid was honoured for entering the select club of 10,000 runs in both Tests and one-dayers in his hometown on Monday. But over the last year the runs haven't quite come with the same fluid frequency for ‘the wall.’
And his middle order colleague for the better part of the last decade, Sourav Ganguly, is battling his own ghosts. Two failures for India A against New Zealand A have meant Ganguly faces a stern test in Bangalore, where the first Test will take place. The critics have sharpened their knives but Dada has his backers too.
“Form is temporary, class is permanent. These are class players and have played with distinction for a number of years. They have all played more than 100 Test matches. They need just one good knock," said former Indian manager Lalchand Rajput.
Ganguly would have certainly kept an eye on performances by Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh in the warm up game against the Aussies. All of them made a statement with centuries for the Board President's XI and some think they shouldn't have been knocking on the door; they should have been included.
"I would have liked to see one of those young players in the side because if you beat Australia with one of them in the side, just think what that would do for the side and the Indian cricket to go forward in the years to come," said former South African batsman Daryl Cullinan.
The woes of the middle order mean that Virender Sehwag can once again face a greater burden. Even as he tested a bowling machine at his old coaching centre, Sehwag knows his bat will simply have to deliver.
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