When team is struggling, you must field best XI

The first round of the tri-series is over with Australia comfortably placed at the top. The Sri Lankans did give the hosts a late scare on Friday but overall Australia was a better team that day and deserved to win.

It's good to see the new players who have come in for Australia already beginning to make impressions. They have been very disciplined with their bowling performance, the fast bowlers sticking to a plan and spinners playing their role to perfection.

Dan Christian has been very impressive, I consider him more of a batting all-rounder. He is an aggressive batsman but in Perth we saw him play maturely. With the ball, he has good variations and most importantly picks up wickets. It's always a bonus to have a cricketer of that ability in the side.

India's win over Sri Lanka at Perth will give them some much needed confidence but the victory was far from convincing, which I believe should have been. The batting still continues to be a worry and apart from Virat Kohli, no one really looks to be in form.

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I am particularly concerned with Suresh Raina's approach while tackling short-pitched stuff. It's a known fact for the bowlers around the world that he isn't comfortable at that length. Even the best of batsmen have had this weakness, but at this level one must learn on how to tackle it.

He can leave the balls or look to work around the ball for a single and come off strike, rather than getting into awkward positions or looking to play over ambitious strokes, which can come off well in the subcontinent but not in Australian conditions.

However the conditions in Adelaide should suit the Indians, as the wicket will have some assistance for their spinners and the bounce wouldn't be a big worry. But we have seen often in this tour that the Indian bowlers have erred in length. Here they must look to bowl more straight and full keeping the shorter boundaries at the square in mind.

I have also been hearing about the rotation policy adopted by the Indians. It's not that Indians are doing very well. When your side is struggling, you look to field the best possible eleven that you have. The bowlers can be rotated depending on the workload but not the batting, which is the main discipline that they have struggled the most throughout the tour. When I was playing for Australia, I wanted to play each and every game.

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