The nostalgia of Brisbane 2021 refuses to fade but India, still reeling from a bitter home debacle, will be under tremendous pressure when they face an equally circumspect Australia in a battle of two out-of-form batting units in the opening Test of the marquee Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting in Perth on Friday.
In 2018-19 and 2020-21, India proved that lightning can strike twice with back to back series wins but the manner in which New Zealand came, saw and decimated them on home turf recently has certainly hit the psyche of an otherwise world-class unit.
The undeniable truth is that some of the stars driving this unit are in the twilight of their hallowed careers. How the five-match rubber against Pat Cummins and his men unfolds could well decide their future.
A record third World Test Championship final entry that looked imminent before the start of the New Zealand series, now seems like a distant dream. A 4-0 score-line has become an absolute necessity for India to avoid relying on other teams.
And a 4-0 scoreline on Australian soil is as improbable a proposition as an Indian football team beating Brazil or Argentina in a FIFA friendly.
But anyone who has seen this current bunch from close quarters will vouch that this team can bounce back from the brink. It also tends to play its best cricket when Doubting Thomases enjoy a condescending chuckle at their expense.
In this backdrop, Australia, ready to avenge the humiliation suffered in last five years, face a team that enters the cage without its regular skipper (Rohit Sharma on paternity break), its best exponent of reverse swing (Mohammed Shami, still not 100 per cent fit) and a future skipper (Shubman Gill, thumb fracture).
An Australia series is known to make or break careers. Sachin Tendulkar scored a hundred on a WACA track with ‘snake cracks’ and the world took notice while Dilip Vengsarkar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth were forced to walk into the sunset back in 1991-92.
Virat Kohli, Rohit, who will arrive before the second Test in Adelaide, and senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin are facing that moment of reckoning yet again and an indifferent result could have repercussions.
Kohli’s coronation as ‘King Kohli’ happened in 2014 in this very country with those four hundreds while Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant still make appearances in the nightmares of the Aussie bowling quartet, which will certainly be playing its last Border-Gavaskar series together.
This will perhaps be the series which will be decided by bowlers more than ever with Jasprit Bumrah, leading in the opening game, entrusted with the duty of setting the tone against a line-up which has been far from its best even at home in recent times.
Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep are likely to be Bumrah’s partners but the lanky Prasidh Krishna and the burly Harshit Rana are also staking a claim with impressive skill sets.
Whatever be the composition, the home batters cannot afford to take it lightly. Steve Smith’s average in the current WTC cycle (2023-25) is just around 36 while his career average is an impressive 56 plus in over 100 Tests.
Marnus Labuschagne’s career average is nearly 50 but in the last two years, it has nose-dived to less than 30.
Travis Head has been India’s nemesis in back to back ICC finals within months of each other but even his average is a lowly 28 plus in this cycle.
Save for Usman Khawaja, who even at the business end of his career epitomises consistency, keeper Alex Carey and skipper Cummins, who is now a proper all-rounder, the batting hasn’t exactly inspired confidence.
Australia’s tail has a better chance of wagging given that India are mulling on playing the better spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin instead of a far better batter in Ravindra Jadeja.
It could be a tactical call looking at the moisture and bounce available on a first track and the world knows that Ashwin is a shade better compared to Jadeja when it comes to bowling on opening day tracks if need be.
To ensure that India’s tail isn’t as big as that of Kangaroos found in Australian Outbacks, rookie all-rounder Nitish Reddy is expected to be thrown at the deep end of the pool with hope and a prayer that he can be a steady fourth pacer giving 12 to 15 overs per day.
In batting, three of India’s top six batters have never played in Australia and two of them have a cumulative Test experience of four games.
But there’s something in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel that inspires confidence.
They will have Rishabh Pant, perhaps one of the finest Test batters India have produced in the last five years, and a mildly under-confident but stylish KL Rahul for company.
If they fire in unison, India will be more than handful.
Teams
India: Jasprit Bumrah (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Washington Sundar.
Australia: Pat Cummins (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.
Match Starts: 7:50 am IST
Where to watch: The match will be telecast live on Star Sports and DD Sports. It can also be streamed live on Disney+Hotstar.
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