A bad start to a foreign tour should not be considered as a parameter to judge what will happen down under. The Indians are usually been poor starters on foreign tours - 38-3 in the first hour and the doom merchants were at it.

Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Jaffer and VVS Laxman back in the hutch even before our eyes had fully opened after a night shift. Victorian fringe bowler Allan Wise did some damage but we should not read much into this session of play.

Can we predict anything about India's tour down under by looking at one bad morning? Remember, the Indians have been playing in sub- continent conditions for three months so it's natural for them to have sluggish feet playing in very different conditions.

'Remember the last time we played down under, we almost came back with a memorable series win'

Fans being fans, tend to forget that winning in alien conditions is very difficult. How many teams (apart from Australia occasionally) have performed well in India? If we take the last Test series that the Aussies won in India, had it not rained in Chennai the scoreline would had been different. The same applies to the ODI series sikx weeks ago.

And remember the last time we played down under, we almost came back with a memorable series win. That’s the kind of quality I am talking about and to judge this quality of batsmanship in an hour and a half under cloudy conditions on foreign soil at the beginning of a tour is absurd.

Indian fans should give their team a bit of time to acclimatise and then talk. I am confident in our ability to defy the Aussie attack and our bowlers also have the potential to get stuck into Ricky Ponting and Co.