Ian Chappell claims that India have erred by not selecting Virender Sehwag in the squad for the tour of Australia. i would be inclined to agree this because I am a huge fan of Sehwag. in my opinion, he is much better suited to test cricket than odi's and t20. the high pressure environment in limited overs cricket has been sehwag's undoing too often. he bats much more fluently in test cricket where there are no limits. also, there are more attacking fielders in test cricket which allows sehwag to score to consistently quickly.

it is true that the current line-up has batted very well for the last 6 test matches. all the batsman have scored plenty of fifties with a few centuries in the last 2 tests. karthik, who was the leading scorer in england has suddenly lost his touch in the home tests. but given his success in england, i think he has a strong case for inclusion on the australian tour. jaffer has just scored his second double century and looks to have cemented one opening slot. laxman and ganguly were considered the middle order batsmen under the most amount of pressure but both have scored centuries, with laxman scoring 190 runs against pakistan with just the one dismissal. tendulkar and dravid cannot possibly be dropped against australia. and yuvraj singh has scored a hundred in the meantime as well.

so admittedly, it is a bit difficult to squeeze sehwag in at the moment. but i think in the interests of trying to win a series in australia, karthik or jaffer has to miss out to give sehwag a shot. an attack without mcgrath, with 4 fast bowlers including lee and tait is bound to be an absolute feast for sehwag....

Murali- unsullied despite the best efforts of Australia

Muttiah Muralitharan has surpassed Shane Warne as the highest test wickettaker of all-time. Not unexpectedly, criticisms, ridicule, outrage and sheer hatred have flooded in from all corners of Australia, railing against Murali's great achievement. Many (not all) Australians are absolutely disgusted that the world record has passed into the keeping of Murali, not only because it is a record that was held by Austrlian spinner Shane Warne, but also because it is unlikely that this record will be overhauled anytime soon in the near future.

But most of all, Australia is unable to "hack it" because Australian umpires Darrell Hair and Ross Emerson attempted to remove Murali from the game by no-balling him for a bent-arm bowling action, and failed.

Furthermore, there is a general consensus in Australia that the ICC bowed to pressure from subcontinental cricket boards and amended the laws to legalize Murali's action. This is absolutely preposterous. The laws were amended to legalize all bowlers. McGrath and Lee were bending their elbows as much Murali and basically every other bowler. But in Australia, this fact is conveniently forgotten or ignored, and the lie that the law was changed specifically for Murali is considered gospel.

It is unfortunate that Australia as a whole will never accept Murali, and give him the credit that is due to him, for he is a truly great bowler, the likes of whom we may never see again in our lifetimes.

But no matter, regardless of how highly Australians think of themselves, they are only a small part of the cricketing world. The majority of international cricket fans recognize Murali for the champion he is, and grant him the according accolades. So congratulations Murali!!! Well done, and I hope you keep playing and keep taking an amazing amount of wickets. I personally dont think that 1000 wickets is beyond your ability.