Perhaps it is due to the glut of cricket that Indian fans have been exposed to – 13 Tests, eight ODIs and five T20s since July last year – or perhaps the disposition of their next opponents that there is a distinct lack of a Paul Revere-esque cries heralding their arrival in India: ‘The Aussies are coming!’
Given the tribalism this rivalry has fostered in recent years, it is tempting for India to subscribe to the theory that the visit of the Australians – with one win in their last 16 Tests in Asia, two defeats to Pakistan in the UAE, whitewashed on their most recent trips to India and Sri Lanka – is beneath even their contempt.
But you will see that this notion does not centre on India’s crushing dominance at home, rather on Australia’s contrasting form and that they head into this Test series as clear underdogs.
There is, admittedly, no crisis of attitude vis-a-vis Australia – that was resolved when they were whitewashed on their last visit, an identical score-line of 4-0 in return for the one they inflicted on the hosts in 2011/12. India-Australia encounters add more layers on top of existing ones.
Nevertheless, that was the moment the counter was reset, and the two teams are at very different stages of their development, largely stemming from the varied paths they took following that series.
It’s being promoted as the #TestOfTheBest, and whilst this is seven parts hype, the visitors are second in the Test rankings behind their hosts, and have won four of their six series since the 2015 Ashes. Even defeat to South Africa was, at least, notable for the swift changes it prompted.
Oddly enough, their predecessors were a snarling, motley crew in the headlines for one reason or another, but this Australian team seem curiously devoid of statement.
Three major stories from their last three Tests, for example, were successively – Pakistan almost pulling off a world record fourth innings chase, Pakistan’s Azhar Ali striking a double century not long after a triple ton and Pakistan’s Younus Khan accumulating a big hundred. A series which, mind you, Australia swept 3-0.
Star Sports promoting #IndvAus as #TestOfTheBest. Australia is ranked no 2 but it's been over 12 yrs since they've won a test match in India
— Aditya (@forwardshortleg) February 12, 2017
A contributing factor has been Australia captain Steven Smith’s portrayal of the challenge that lies ahead. With expectations for India’s strong run to continue, some of the pressure on the Aussies is lifted, and Smith is only too happy to play along.
Reading his comments about the excitement of facing a strong team and attempting a heist that his side would remember for years to come, one imagines a parade of whippet-like kids, freckled in face and cheeky in tongue, taking the field in Pune for the first Test.
Every sports team dreams of toppling the big bad alley cat at the peak of its powers and making away gleefully with the spoils. Perhaps the description fits this Australian side well.
Considering this is a team hoping their intensive spin preparation in the UAE will help them better acquaint with pitches in India, you imagine the Australians will be committed to not overplaying in public, except in case of victory.
Ricky Ponting claimed defeat would not be catastrophic as long as Australia remain competitive. He may be being realistic, but it is nevertheless amusing to see this former swaggering captain speak in this manner.
Ponting seemed to personify the worst of the Australians, filing every Indian fan with impotent rage when raising his finger to indicate his opinion on a decision – and then winning the series anyway.
If Australia play well, India will win 3-0, else 4-0: Harbhajan
— Yash (@AficionadoYash) February 18, 2017
The Australian team once seemed full of such characters. But those days are long gone, even the 2014-15 side that marked Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s swansong in Test cricket with a 2-0 defeat was filled with players rooted in that era’s mentality – Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson – which made the dull blow of that defeat even more painful.
During Australia’s hegemonic years, India were always their bogey team, the ‘final frontier’, the ones who stopped Australia in their tracks and rained on their parade. The home wins in 1998 and 2001, the draw in 2003-04 and the denial of Ponting’s chance at a record number of consecutive Test wins in 2007-08 energised India with a defiant spirit against the nemesis from Down Under, but they were never quite able to score the elusive series win in Australia against that side.
The last series against Australia seemed to confirm that even the scraps of that team, reared on only the fumes of their ultra-competitive spirit, were a bridge too far for India. And just to rub it in, that side beat India on their own patch, one of only three teams to do so since 1987.
It is not that there are no pantomime villains this time – David Warner, remember, is a member of the touring party – but the composition of the tourists makes you unsure of how to compute them in relation to previous Australian visitors.
The squad is a curious mix of seasoned first-teamers and untried newcomers. The ‘Dad’s Army’ of Adam Voges, Ryan Harris and Chris Rogers are retired. Matt Renshaw has played four Tests, Steven O’Keefe three, Mitchell Swepson none.
They are like the novel in literature, a new form of narrative defined in great part by what they are not.
Whereas India are blessed with a fully settled side, Australia has at least three questions marks over their first XI – opener, number six, bowling, where decisions in one respect are likely to affect the other.
It is this uncertainty that represents a break from the past, from the creaking Australia of the last two series, a new side against the formidable behemoth at home.
It was after the famous Ashes series of 2005 that England captain Michael Vaughan said something interesting about the mood preceding the first Test at Lord’s. He explained that the situation was quite a nice one, in fact, because many members of the side had not played an Ashes series before, and were thus missing psychological scars of previous Australian defeats.
Likewise, the Australian hope for a heist appears rather endearingly symbolic of their inexperience, of a group of cricketers preparing to negotiate an enormous challenge for the first time or, failing that, at least from a new perspective. Smith, for example, played two Tests on the 2013 tour, but returns to the subcontinent as captain.
The risk of long-term damage is limited; several are young enough to recover their careers, and more experienced heads are unlikely to be dropped unless a disaster unfolds. This “new” Australia might not be such a bad thing. Nothing ventured is nothing gained, pressure makes diamonds and all that sort of thing.
Test eve 👌 #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/aaP9IrxQBy
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 22, 2017
When examining the transitional nature of this Australian side – in the process of bedding in new players, unfancied challengers to their dominant hosts – it’s worth remembering the England side that visited India in 2001.
Although India won the series 1-0, the tactics of English captain Nasser Hussain drew much attention, and England gave a rather creditable account of themselves. If nothing else, they had left the series with important lessons learnt and some talk of a ‘moral victory’.
Ponting’s point is along such lines. Australia has some talented batsmen – even Harbhajan Singh omitted Smith and Warner from his unspecified list of willow-wielding Australian pushovers – but there is a suggestion that their chances will be decided to a greater extent by their bowlers.
Nathan Lyon is someone India know well as the architect of the defeat in Adelaide in 2014. His poor record in Asia has been well documented – 42 wickets at 42.57 – but the fast bowlers may instead hold the key.
On the last five tours of India, Australian seamers have outperformed their slower counterparts by an average of four wickets per Test and have also been a full run-per-over cheaper on average.
Non-Asians have been powered by speed each time they’ve won in India over the last 13 years and seamers have claimed almost twice as many wickets and claimed them almost 21 balls cheaper per wicket.
Many visiting teams come to India & start reacting to the appearance of the pitch.Oz must play 2 seam, 2 spin,maybe fast offies from Maxwell
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) February 22, 2017
This would ordinarily suggest great responsibility thrust upon Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood (32 wickets in the last two series, seven wickets at 2.70 runs per over in Sri Lanka), but they will need able support from the spinners to prosper.
Ordinarily, this would not be a problem, but Australia has packed fewer seamers than spinners in their squad – Starc, Hazlewood, Jackson Bird and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh – and the schedule makes breakdown a real possibility.
Four Tests are squeezed into a little over a month, with an average of six scheduled days of rest between games not looking like much if the same seamers share the majority of the burden. Perhaps anticipating this, Starc has already ruled himself out of the IPL, and now the spinners have added responsibility to reduce the workload on the quicks.
Keeping the score down will be a real task, and Lyon, who conceded at over four and a half runs an over in the tour game against India A, will definitely be under pressure to answer his critics. Succeed in that and Australia might have a sniff of a chance: they got the feel of things after piling up 469 runs in the same match.
