Chennai, Feb 22: Lillee vs Gavaskar. Kapil vs Border. Sachin vs Warne. Dravid vs Gillespie. Laxman vs Lee. Dhoni vs Clarke. India vs Australia. Yes - it's India vs Australia time again. Time for the talk to end and for the action to begin. Men will be separated from boys. The flour from the grain. It may not have the same buzz as before, but this is a special rivalry. And it's always great cricket when India take on Australia. A warm welcome to one and all from us as we bring you the opening test of this latest stanza. We are going to start the series in Chennai and we are all ready to go. Are you?
A heroic Kapil Dev on painkillers to help India win at Melbourne in 81. Dean Jones' epic 210 in the cauldron of Chennai in 86. Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar taming a blonde debutant in 91. Sachin's brutal assault on a Chepauk turner in 98. Laxman's once-in-a-lifetime innings at Eden in 2001. India's memorable win at Adelaide in 2004. Steve Waugh's final hurrah in front of his home crowd at Sydney. The conquering of the final frontier in 2004. The Sydney Gate in 2008. After Sydney, redemption in Perth. The retirement of two legends in the home series in 2008. The whitewash in 2011.
Australia have won the toss and elected to bat.
Dhoni: 'We would have batted as well. If it turns from Day 1, toss will not have much of an impact but it would have been good to bat first. The preparation has been good. We had a couple of days of practice in Bangalore and here in Chennai. We got the center wicket practice which we love a lot. We have put in a lot of effort and hope it shows. We have a good mixture of youngsters and experienced players. Shikhar Dhawan, Dinda, Ojha and Rahane are not playing today.'
Clarke: 'We're definitely going to bat first. The wicket looks extremely dry. I don't think we can prepare a practice wicket this dry. The conditions are very different from what we come across in Australia. We have a young team and that's the challenge. I hope we can put on a good performance with the bat. The people in Chennai have looked after us like gold, we've had great practice wickets here. As announced earlier, we are just going with one spinner in Lyon and three pacers.'
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma
Australia (Playing XI): Ed Cowan, David Warner, Phillip Hughes, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke(c), Matthew Wade(w), Moises Henriques, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon
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