ACID TEST - Tough ODI series awaits DHONI after Aussies are left wounded in the race row

For over a month now, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has stood silently behind the stumps and watched the world go by. Barring one handy partnership of 75 with VVS Laxman during the third Test at Perth he has had little impact on the series with the bat. On the controversy front, he has maintained a studied silence and largely remained insulated from the heat generated – thanks to the unflappable Anil Kumble who led from the front. But all that stands changed now. Being the captain of the one-day side in these charged-up environments his man-management skills will be tested to the fullest while leading a group of temperamental youngsters in the one-off Twenty20 game in front of 90,000 people at the MCG tomorrow and the following three-nation tournament which gets underway at Brisbane on February 3.The man from Ranchi could count himself lucky that Sachin Tendulkar’s experience will be on his side. But he’ll be the one on the hot seat. In the wake of Harbhajan Singh’s acquittal by ICC’s appeals commissioner John Hansen, the Australians have been left smarting and they will once again be at their provoking-best against Team India in the one-dayers.Aussies’ trapThere is a certain truth to the theory that Harbhajan walked into the trap laid out by the Australians when Andrew Symonds “had a crack at him” in Sydney. What happened after that will never be forgotten. A similar tactic could be used for S Sreesanth who was at his menacing best during the ill-tempered seven-match one-day series in India last year. He had on and off the field clashes with Symonds and Matthew Hayden and they have been seething in anger since, waiting for him to come here