By Tushar Bhaduri
Cricketers play on the pitch, the pitch plays on their minds.
This can be an apt description of what has transpired in the Nagpur Test. The Australians seemed spooked by the 22 yards in the middle, and were more worried about the challenges it could present than any players in the Indian line-up.
The days leading up to the Test were filled with reports of intrigue about the playing surface that may have led the visitors to believe that it was something out of the ordinary. It seemed to cloud their judgment and influence their strategy and approach to the game, starting with the team selection.
When a team, after winning the toss, is bundled out for 177 inside 64 overs on the first day, when the surface is supposed to be the best for batting, it suggests the pitch may not be a flat track.
Also read: Ravichandran Ashwin wrecks Australia as India win by innings and 132 runs
It wasn’t. The wicket at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium at Jamtha has turned out to be a typical Indian red-soil pitch, on the low and slow side, with help for spinners. But then, what else would a visiting team in India expect?
Rohit Sharma showed how to bat long on this surface, with a judicious mix of attack and defence. And the manner in which Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel thwarted the Australian bowlers suggests their prowess on such pitches is not limited to their bowling.
Both teams were missing some key players, but the Australians didn’t utilise the resources at their disposal to the optimum. They omitted arguably their most key batsman over the last 12 months, Travis Head, known for his counter-attacking approach to snatch the momentum when the opposition had their tails up, owing to his iffy record on previous visits to the subcontinent. They included, instead, Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb, who had got some runs in Australia’s last Test tour in 2017, but are more circumspect players by nature. The horses-for-courses policy trumped current form.
As it turned out, Renshaw got out first ball on the opening day while Handscomb batted for 84 balls for his 31, unable to have any significant impact as wickets kept falling around him.
A common error most visiting teams make on their tours to India is focusing exclusively on the home team’s spin attack. India’s seam attack (with or without Jasprit Bumrah) is now one of the best in the world, though they are not usually expected to do the heavy lifting at home.
They can still be relied upon to get vital breakthroughs, especially early on in the piece, and Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami set the tone in Nagpur with the wickets of openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner, reducing Australia to 2/2, after which they were always playing catch-up.
Bat long, bat big
The key to succeeding in India, regardless of the pitch, is getting big totals in the first innings. Sometimes, scores in excess of 400 are also not safe. Hence, batsmen who get in need to carry on and get big hundreds, not get out in the 30s and 40s, as Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were guilty of doing. It is believed that the first 20 balls a batsman faces on Indian spin-friendly pitches, with the noisy stands, close-in fielders making one feel claustrophobic, and the ball misbehaving (or going straight on, which is arguably a bigger danger on such surfaces) is the most difficult phase. If and when one gets through it, one needs to make the hard work count.
Winning an away series in India is such a rare feat that it generally ends up as a highlight for the group of players who achieve it. It requires almost obsessive preparation and attention to detail, but also a willingness to accept the unique challenge, and not get overawed by it. The big crowds, the intense following of the game, the heat, the travel, the pitches, the chatter around the bat, and the spinners rushing through their overs sometimes in a minute are not something a player from Australia, England or New Zealand experiences a great deal. They need to enjoy this opportunity to test their wits and skills against all these intangibles. All this, before one factors in the high skill level of the home team.
Many senior Australian players would have played a lot of seasons of the Indian Premier League. It is argued that it has made them quite familiar with Indian conditions. But playing franchise cricket doesn’t prepare one for the rigour, stakes and pressures of the longest format of the game, especially when the series is going to virtually decide the finalists of the World Test Championship.
Australia have named India the ‘final frontier’ in terms of overseas success. A reversal in the first Test is not necessarily a mortal blow to their ambitions. England came back from a first-Test defeat to win on their tour a decade ago. Indians themselves bounced back from a 36 all-out on their tour of Australia. The Aussies may also be boosted with the availability of first-choice players Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cameron Green for subsequent matches. But more than a change in personnel, a change in approach is required if they have to turn the ship around.