Ashok Malhotra, who represents East Zone on the national selection committee, is one of them. And his thoughts turn to the question of openers -- Malhotra making no bones of the fact that India has not had an international class opener since Gavaskar quit the scene.

In Shiv Sunder Das, Malhotra believes, we could have found someone for the long haul. "I have seen Das grow up," he says, "I have even played alongside him, the lad has what it takes."

The selector believes that the openers will be the key to how well India fare against the Aussies. "They have won 15 on the trot, so?" he shrugs. "No doubt it will be a tough tour, but if we bat solidly we can win. The key will be the opening stand -- if the openers click, if they keep out the Aussie pacemen, then the series is as good as won."

Malhotra, himself one of the best cutters of the ball in his day, finds parallels in Das. "That boy is a tremendous cutter of the ball, he gets right on top of it and plays the shot late, which helps."

Short-statured men, somehow, seem to play that shot particularly well -- the classic instance being G R Vishwanath. Malhotra nods agreement. "Being short helps with those two shots, the cut and the pull. Also, in my case, the fact that I played in the north, which had matting wickets, helped me develop my cut shot. You couldn't really go forward and punch the ball on matting wickets, the cut was a safer shot. Even in the Seventies, Ranji Trophy games used to be played on matting wickets, so we short-statured batsmen learnt to cut as a way of combating quick bowlers."

Back in the city where he made his Test debut, 19 years ago, against England, Malhotra muses on the team he and his fellow selectors will soon pick. "The key to turning our results around," he says, "is to find a genuine opening pair, and two good spinners."

The opening problem, the selectors believe, is more or less resolved.

And the spinners?

Malhotra won't -- can't -- answer that. Only Time can.

Photographs: Alok Jaitley

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