The issues with starting a Test series at the Adelaide Oval have been reinforced during the past five days. 

For the home team the distinct advantage of having quality seam bowlers and one genuine fast bowler is blunted by the turgid turf. Batting has forever been the flavour of choice in South Australia and recently the drop-in pitches mandated by AFL have provided even flatter and more durable surfaces.  This Test has been slightly different in that the pitch behaved like a Georgian gentleman on a chaperoned date for the first couple of days,  then Nathan Lyon provoked some immodest behaviour out of the footmarks during the third, fourth and fifth. 

It is such a shame to see in-form fast bowler Josh Hazlewood running drinks. He has the potential to be quite a handful in Brisbane; he is bowling fast, swinging the new ball and getting plenty of bounce. It is time for the new generation to be given their heads.

Under pressure: Fast bowler Peter Siddle shows the strain on day five in Adelaide. Photo: Getty Images

The Indian batting line-up may no longer contain Laxman, Tendulkar, Sehwag or Dravid (and is without MS Dhoni for this match) but the next generation is no bunch of slouches, although batting at Adelaide provides different challenges from those in Brisbane. 

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Australian teams of the 1980s who perennially faced the box-office West Indies  cried out to start series at Adelaide or Sydney so  they could either get in front in a series or at least have a draw and therefore be better prepared for taking on the fast men at Brisbane or the WACA Ground.  The Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia) declined the pleading and, when Tests were won on turning pitches at the SCG, the series was already lost. Australia have been forced to change the team for Brisbane given Michael Clarke's fitness dramas. The captain's body failed him again in Adelaide on the last day and he won't be seen on a cricket field for a while.

Darren Lehmann has never been keen on changing the formula but his major issue heading north  is the use of his all-rounders. 

Does he need Mitchell Marsh and Shane Watson both batting in the top six?  Marsh is occasionally hitting the 140kilometre per hour pace that Watson once did, but his Test batting needs some honing. 

There are compromises being made with Marsh as a Test cricketer as his top-level education proceeds. He is neither good enough as a specialist  batsman nor as a specialist bowler, a skill set  generally reserved for a No.7. 

The national selectors had a prime opportunity to play two spinners in the first Test but went in with three front-line seamers, two all-rounders plus  Lyon, and Steve Smith's occasional leggies. That is certainly plenty of bowling for Adelaide, especially as Peter Siddle has become an old-ball reverse swing merchant now  his pace is down.  But with only three days between these first two Tests it may be time to revisit the rotation system. 

Ed Cowan's dual centuries for Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield match will be nudging the selectors' consciousness, especially given Chris Rogers' dual failures. 

As it is an appropriate time for the seam bowling baton to be passed on from Siddle, so too it may be the time to thank  Rogers for his sterling, if delayed, efforts and invite a younger man to prepare for the coming Test battles. The style of cricket played in the second Test will be different from the first. 

Expect more effective seam bowling (as long as they bowl a good full length) and fieldsmen in the slip cordon for longer,  and maybe India's quicker bowlers challenging the Australian batsmen when they do try the short one. Australia will have no fears about moving to a faster surface no matter what changes they may have in the line-up. 

India, having struggled for the most part in Adelaide on a pitch that should have suited them, should be worried, very worried. Adelaide Oval is not a good cricket pitch (one that gives both batsmen and bowlers of quality a chance to succeed), it is a good batting pitch.

The Gabba has an archetypal Australian centre pitch. Around the cricket world the reputation of Australian strips revolves around pace and bounce, and our home-ground advantage is based on those two attributes; Adelaide Oval proffers little of either but, judging by the closing days, the spin has returned to a degree, and that is a good thing. So far, the Australian spin attack has out-bowled the Indian one, an event we don't often see. India have  chosen a rookie leg-spinner and provided Karn Sharma with only part-time support. It looks, too, as though it is the wrong combination for the conditions. India so often play two full-time and a couple of part-time slow bowlers.

India's combination plus  Lyon's bowling provide a point of difference, that plus winning the toss on a class-A batting surface. 

Australia, after losing both tosses against Pakistan, found themselves playing catch-up from day one. India  found themselves in that position. The Indians have enjoyed playing the ball at a lower height and having fractions longer to adjust defences and calculate strokes after the ball pitches. 

The extra time to combat Mitchell Johnson was appreciated. They won't have that luxury in Brisbane.

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