Rahul Dravid

Calcutta: Former Australia captain Steve Waugh feels Rahul Dravid will be the key man in India’s run chase at the MCG.

“Something tells me that Dravid will be India’s key player in their quest to tackle the mammoth task that confronts them. He is a proud man who would have been wounded by his first innings performance and I have no doubt he would have thought long and hard about how to rectify his lack of impact first time around,” Waugh wrote in his column for Melbourne’s Daily Telegraph.

“When in the right mindset he is the toughest batsman in world cricket to dismiss and already has a double hundred on his CV in Australia and like all great players he’s only one favourite well-executed shot away from being back in form.”

The former India captain scored an agonising 5 off 66 balls in the first innings and opened again with India set an improbable target of 499.

Waugh felt the home bowlers must attack the stumps. “The simple game plan for Australia’s quick bowlers will be to attack the stumps in search of LBWs with the pitch staying increasingly low. India’s batsmen will need to bat outside their crease to negate this threat and be vigilant in ensuring they pay attention to detail by playing horizontally,” he wrote.

He was also full of praise for successor Ricky Ponting. “One amazing statistic that demonstrates how brilliant Ricky Ponting has been was that this was his first double of single figure scores in a Test for six years.

“One of the pieces of advice I stressed to Ricky when he took over the captaincy was to make sure his own game was in good shape, as a leader is just that, a guy for others to look up to and aspire to. It also allows a captain to fully concentrate on his team without stressing over his own game. “Ponting has excelled in this area averaging over 60 and the team’s results have been a direct correlation to his success.”

Waugh also criticised India’s running between the wickets and fielding.

“India may have a ready-made excuse with the fielding in that they are brought up on grounds that are rock-hard and bereft of grass and not conducive to putting your body on the line but surely with the amount of coaches and support staff their technical expertise should be near that of a Symonds and Clarke.