It would be a good idea to try out Tiwary

We are through to the halfway mark in the tri-series and it is nicely poised, with all of the teams having a good chance of making to the finals. Sri Lanka had a couple of very close games, and it seemed that it was a matter of time when results would start going in their favour. Their comprehensive win against the Australians, with a bonus point means that at the halfway stage of the tournament, only three points separate the three teams.

When the tournament began, I felt that Australians were clear favourites and it would be a contest between Indian and Sri Lanka for the finals berth but as the tournament progressed, the Australian performance seemed to have gone down with every game. Fielding which is their strength has been very sloppy of late and it's their batting which hasn’t been consistent. Adding to their woes is the injury to their in-form captain Michael Clarke.

The wicket at Gabba in Brisbane has more for the quick bowlers and if the Australians stick to a plan, it should favour their variety of bowling. The stand-in captain Ricky Ponting hasn't had a good tournament so far so he would like to lead from the front, getting some valuable runs for his team.

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India on the other hand have the momentum going for them and they can take encouragement from the fact that they have won their past two ODIs against Australia at the Gabba. But that was in March 2008 and ever since then the Australians haven't been beaten in this venue. I feel the Indians should have had two more points from their previous game. I still don't understand their tactic of keeping things for too late.

Against Australia on last Sunday, they could have won the game with a couple of overs to spare, but they took it till the end. It was similar against Sri Lanka on Tuesday and it didn't come off this time for India. MS Dhoni, a good striker that he is, should look to start the acceleration much before the end.

What this tactic does is, it puts more pressure on the other incoming batsmen as well, who come in and are forced to play the catching up game with the high asking rate. In both the games, till the time Gautam Gambhir got out, it seemed an easy victory for the Indians.

Gambhir has been playing well and as per the rotation policy that the Indians have adopted he is due to rest today but that shouldn't happen for the obvious reasons. The rotation of players for them has been with fast bowlers and the top order while the middle order hasn’t been consistent and looks a bit complacent.

Had the middle order played their role well, the matches wouldn't have gone down the wire. It would be a good idea to try out someone like Manoj Tiwary in the middle order. He has a hundred in his last ODI and I hear he has been in tremendous form in the domestic circuit.

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