Watching India play Australia in the first Test in Chennai in March last year, I was suddenly struck by the strength of the middle order. The opening pair - Sidhu and Mongia - did not catch the eye. With that sort of pairing, it had to be only partly successful anyway. But this was made up by the batsmen who followed - Dravid, Tendulkar, Azharuddin and Ganguly. Just to confirm, I checked the record books and to my astonishment I found that all of them had a Test career average of over 50 or very close to that mark. This was something that had not happened in Indian cricket, even in the days of CK Nayudu, VS Hazare, PR Umrigar, VL Manjrekar, CG Borde, MAK Pataudi, GR Viswanath, M.Amarnath and DB Vengsarkar. From the 30s to the 90s, even though the middle order had been graced by these and other stalwarts, never had the entire middle order consisted of batsmen who could boast of such a high career average.

It is heartening to note that the middle order is very much intact as the team prepares to meet New Zealand in the first Test at Mohali from October 10. Azharuddin is not in the line up but Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar are still very much around - and still very much have an overall Test career average of 50 or thereabouts. And now of course there is a fourth player - Ramesh - who has a career average over this mark. Really Indian batting never had it this good and it augurs well for the Test.