Waugh: Warne not to be dropped

Aussie captain Steve Waugh on Saturday, denied media reports that Warne would be dropped and replaced by Miller. "It is a simple question but the answer is mine," he told reporters adding the two spinners would definitely figure the final eleven which would be announced later in the evening.

Coach John Buchanan was quoted in the Australian media on Friday as saying Warne, after the battering he got from V V S Laxman and Rahul Dravid in Calcutta, was not fully fit to play in the third Test.

India have slight injury worries with both paceman Javagal Srinath and wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia being doubtful starters for the match. While Mongia sustained a nose injury from a Harbhajan Singh ball on the last day of the Calcutta Test, Srinath has still not recovered from the finger injury he sustained in the first Test at Mumbai.

Debashish Mohanty and Samir Dighe would replace them after the team management takes a final decision on them by Saturday night.

Captain Saurav Ganguly sought to ignore the trouble though concentrating more on the batting side. He said the pitch looked like a good batting track and hoped the batsmen would score enough runs to give the bowlers a defendable target.

Obviously, his optimism stemmed from the masterly knocks of Laxman and Dravid at Kolkata. He himself looked quite impressive in his second knock. Though Sachin Tendulkar failed to get going in both the innings in Calcutta, this is one of his favourite hunting grounds. The Aussies might still remember his brilliant 155 the last time the two countries met here in the first test of the 1998-99 series.

India's problem in this series has been the absence of a sound opening stand - Shiv Sunder Das looked brilliant in patches and Sadgopan Ramesh generally struggled. The duo put on 52 runs in the second innings at Kolkata, the highest in the series so far, but would need a bit more effort to let the latter batsman bat without any pressure.

The Aussies, whose world record 16 Test winning streak was abruptly halted by India at Kolkata, have suddenly started looking a bit vulnerable. Their batsmen have been troubled by spinners and it required heroic knocks from Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden in the first Test and by Steve Waugh in the first innings of the second to bail them out of a sticky situation.

However the bowlers have lived up to the reputation of being the most fearsome attack in contemporary cricket and the pace trio of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz would once again look to exploit the relative discomfort of Indian batsmen against genuine pace.

In the final analysis it looks just a matter of attitude and mental toughness that would make all the difference.

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