[cognito20]

Gilchrist was also horrible in the classic 2001 Test series in India, although he was great both leading up to and directly after the series and played well in the one-day matches. In fact, in the Second Test at Kolkata (the one India won after following on when Laxman hit the 281) I believe Harbhajan and Tendulkar (of all people, he actually bowls some pretty nifty leg-spin) got him for a king pair.

If this wicket was going to help spinners at all perhaps it would be worth reinstating Stuart MacGill (who has an outstanding record bowling in Fifth Tests lol, albeit most of them on an outstanding spinner's wicket at the SCG), but from what I hear that's not usually the case at the Oval (remember, I'm American, I don't get the latest pitch updates on ESPN Sportscenter here lol).

I think the three keys to this match and Australia retaining the Ashes are:

1)McGrath coming back and bowling well,
2)Gilly becoming Gilly again, or a reasonable facsimile of, and, most importantly...
3)Shane Warne coming through when Australia needs him. He is the greatest leg-spinner of all time (and right up there with Laker and Murali as one of the 3 greatest spinners ever, period) and, more importantly, has absolutely -owned- England for the better part of a decade and a half. If Ponting needs to bowl him 40+ overs per innings, he should do it. In fact, I don't think it would be a bad idea to only have McGrath (because of his injury) and Kaspro or whoever the second quick is going to be just get the shine off the ball and then hand it to Warne (and hopefully MacGill, although I don't think he'll be selected) and let them exploit England's traditional weakness against quality legspin. It's Australia's best chance of retaining the Ashes.

--Scott