When I made David Warner my Player of the Week back in October, he was hammering attacks in the T20 Champions League. Since then, he has enjoyed a renaissance in the first-class game and swiftly being promoted to the Test side while another aggressive opener Shane Watson has been injured.
While the likes of Chris Gayle and Luke Wright have enjoyed themselves in the various twenty-over tournaments recently, the 25 year-old from NSW has also been whacking boundaries galore, but in the Third Test at Perth. In the Australians' first innings, he scored more in 159 balls than the entire Indian side had achieved in 362. His 180 was the fourth fastest Test century in history and included 20 fours and five sixes. The opposition bowlers, not exactly the world's worst, were simply taken to pieces, and debutant Vinay Kumar experienced a baptism of fire.
Losing skipper MS Dhoni bravely held up his hand, taking responsibility because of his captaincy. However, the three games so far in this series have smacked of an embarrassing sequence of mismatches, much as the tour of England had been, and that can't be placed only at the door of Dhoni. Do the great batsmen no longer have the vigour and appetite at this level? Tendulkar may not have achieved that hundredth ton but then neither have any of his team-mates so far Down Under. Virat Kohli top-scored in both Indian innings at the WACA, showing the elder statesmen how to do it. When it comes to motivation, captain and coach should be showing the way, but Duncan Fletcher rarely takes the rap. Perhaps he should. Under a year ago, India were the world's number one Test nation and 50-over world champions. Now their reputations are sinking fast.
OK, so India still look a formidable outfit at home but is the increasingly poor record away the product of being unable to cope with foreign conditions, lack of confidence or lack of fight? Now is the time to ring a few changes for the fourth Test. It would help the selectors if, say, VVS Laxman fell on his sword before he is pushed, certainly before the next series. Dravid, Tendulkar and even the slightly younger Gambhir and Sehwag, look vulnerable but still surely have enough to continue for a while yet. Badrinath, Mukund and Raina have so far failed to make the grade but maybe they deserve another go? Also Virender Sehwag must have been concerned to see Warner score his runs in Sehwag-ian style while he himself struggled to accumulate ten runs in 32 balls across two innings.
Poor Dhoni. Not only has his side capitulated in such abject fashion and now he finds himself banned from the final match because of his side's slow over rate at Perth where India played four fast bowlers and no frontline spinner. Meanwhile Michael Clarke and David Warner must be licking their lips at the prospect of a 4-0 whitewash when the sides meet again at Adelaide. Will my next Man of the Moment be another Aussie, or could someone else produce a great performance or two?
