India deal with sure scrap

Jasprit Bumrah-led understrength side brace for battle against hosts Australia as must-awaited five-match Test begins tomorrow

The gigantic Optus Stadium is a new cricketing venue, having hosted just four Tests since Australia locked horns with India in the inaugural five-day game here in December 2018. It’s an impressive but intimidating structure, a modern monstrosity of sorts inside which one can get the feeling of being trapped in a maze. It has also become somewhat of a modern bastion for the Australians, who have won all four previous Tests here and have therefore chosen its pace, bounce and carry with which to attack India in the latest showdown between the two cricketing powerhouses.

India’s dominance

Australia are hosting India for a five-Test series for the first time since 1991-92, a testament to how much the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has come on in the last couple of decades. The hype around these contests is humongous and for the large part, the cricket has lived up to the build-up and the expectations, evidenced by the fact that each of the last four series between the two sides starting from 2017 has ended with an identical 2-1 scoreline, all in favour of India.
In a remarkable break from norm, many players in the current Australian side haven’t tasted a series victory against India — the last time the Aussies came up trumps was in 2014-15, when they won 2-0 at home in Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s final Test series. They have held the Ashes several times and are the defending World Test Championship winners, but they haven’t taken kindly to being beaten twice in a row in their own backyard by the feisty Indians, who must be a little low on confidence following their unprecedented home whitewash by New Zealand.

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India know they are in for a scrap. Even with a full squad, they’d have faced a huge ask following the meltdown against the Kiwis. That they will be without skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill for the first Test, beginning on Friday, means Virat Kohli will necessarily have to shed his extended lean trot and shoulder the responsibility of shepherding a young batting group if Australia’s bowlers, spearheaded by Pat Cummins, are not to run riot.

Perth has historically been a pacers’ paradise though astonishingly, it is off-spinner Nathan Lyon who boasts the most Test wickets (27 in four) at the Optus. India can expect no respite from Australia, though they will hope to hold their own given that their captain is no slouch with the ball either.

All eyes on Jasprit and Kohli

Jasprit Bumrah doesn’t have too much captaincy experience, but is a leader in every sense, assuming that role almost right from the time he made his Test debut, in South Africa in January 2018. He has been to Australia on both their Test series-winning outings, is well refreshed after a three-and-a-half-week break and is primed to make a statement, both as the leader of the pace group and of the team itself in Rohit’s absence. It will be up to him and Kohli to show the way if India aren’t to play catch-up by the time their regular skipper catches up with his colleagues next week.

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