Rising contenders: A showdown of heavyweights

Mumbai: With just four months left until India's Australian summer, whispers from Down Under are reminiscent of the year 2001. Australian captain Steve Waugh's famous battle cry of the 'final frontier' echoes in conversations, as the team strives to break their decades-long drought of not winning in India. The focus now is on their burning desire to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy after ten years and sixteen Tests without success.

India is aiming for a hat-trick of series wins in Australia. Not something the Australian Test team, reigning World Test Champions are used to.

“From an Indian perspective, when you looked at their last victory (2020-21), there was no Virat Kohli. It was a second-string bowling line-up that won at the Gabba. That’s the kind of confidence that you can expect this Indian team to go with,” said former Australian opener Matthew Hayden on sidelines of the Ceat cricket awards.

“They would say, ‘Guys, we’ve done this before in a way that’s second to none. Rishabh Pant must have a muscle memory and a thirst for victory, He was such a key player last time and the Australian public loved him because of the way he played. It was exciting. It was innovative. It was fresh and good.”

Hayden’s bright starts and heavy scoring challenged India the most in that 2001 tour. Once Hayden left, Australian cricket saw the arrival of David Warner who plundered runs aplenty. He’s gone now, earning a living on the lucrative T20 franchise circuit. The left-hander’s absence and Steve Smith’s lackluster returns in his late career switch to opening the batting gives Australian top-order a vulnerable look.

“For the first time, it doesn’t feel as secure. Warner was extremely competitive and wonderfully dynamic. He’s an enormous loss, in terms of, how do you replace him? asked Hayden. “They’ve gone in the direction of Steve Smith thus far. Whether they continue with that strategy, time will tell. We have guys like Cameron Bancroft and Matt Renshaw in the pipeline.”

Hayden is among many pundits who were taken by surprise that Smith agreed to open after years of dominance in the middle-order. “The rationale that George Bailey (selector) gave was that he was just choosing his best top six. You can’t argue with Steve Smith, he’s averaging 60. But, you know, the role of the role of an opening batsman compared to a middle order batsman is very different and it didn’t take long to discover that. I think it’s crazy to think that you have the world’s best-in-class batter in a certain position, and then you change to a completely different position,” he opined.

The Indian team knows the drill well by now, but verbal rockets are fired every day from the Australian ranks. Nathan Lyon, veteran of 129 Tests, is aiming for 22-year-old Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s wicket. “Isn’t it great that, you know, the series is shaping up like a battle of heavyweights. Someone like the GOAT (Lyon) going after Jaiswal who in my opinion is one of the key assets for Indian cricket,” said Hayden.

“His ability, in particular to hit on the up through covers is phenomenal. That’ll also have its vulnerabilities. I’m looking forward to seeing how he adjusts to bouncy tracks. We did notice a few times in the IPL that he’s a very hard hitter of pull shots. He’ll be challenged by three world-class speedsters and on much bigger grounds as well. Grounds that it must almost be the perfect contact for the ball to sail over for six.”

There’s also lot of talk in Australian circles that home pitches have lost life, giving an opening for strong sides like India. “It’s a well-worn path, our drop-in wickets. The groundsmen tend to start with quite a lot of grass cover, between 11 and 13 mil, on day one. They leave them that way because what happens inevitably is they get flatter and flatter and they don’t break up. And in turn, there’s not a lot in it for the ball as opposed to the first few days.”

Then again, India faces the challenge of playing a pink-ball Test at Adelaide in the second Test of the tour. They may still use the 36 all-out as ‘a badge on the sleeve’ but it will take more, with India playing very little day-night Test cricket. Facing Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in twilight time of the day may be their stiffest test. And they would have to do it without the experienced hands of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.

“It’s going to be an unbelievable and historic series and not without great minds coming together to make it five Test matches. Two Test matches are just horrible. Four Tests, there’s always that swinging boat. Whereas with five Test matches, you got a chance to win, to lose, to come back and win,” said Hayden. “How much of the defeats that India gave to Australia will charge them up? Or how much will the Indians get the confidence of winning back-to-back in Australia?”

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