Greetings Cricket Fans!
By now if you've been following India's demolition of all opposition in the last few years at home , you'd be aware that the current Australian Cricket tour of India had pundits and experts alike predicting an Indian 4-0 drubbing! And who could blame them? After all, Australia record against spin and on the sub-Continent in the last few years has been deplorable...they've lost 9 recent test matches, mainly due to a lack of application in batting.
India's record, on the other hand, has seen them go 19 consecutive tests at home without losing mainly due to their captain Virat Kohli scoring 'big' multiple times and their twin spinning threat, Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jajeda have cleaned teams up, but...that has been on the back of defending big Indian totals. The last time India lost a Test Match was in 2015 in Sri Lanka. The last time India has lost a Test Series was in 2012. This is all under serious threat now due to the 'Miracle at Pune' a week-and-a-bit ago.
What is the Miracle at Pune? Well, in layman's terms it's like what Cassius Clay did to Sonny Liston in 1964 in their World Heavyweight Championship fight. It's what Joe Namath said the NY Jets would do to the Colts in SuperBowl III. It's what Eli Manning did to the Patriots in SuperBowl LXII. It's what the Mets did in 1969 (and perhaps 1986). It's Australia winning the America's Cup in 1983. And if you'd like a non-sporting analogy, well, let's try Alexander the Great spending over 6 months building a causeway off the Syrian Coast to Tyre and wiping out their non-ceding inhabitants, as well a gutting it to the ground in 332 BC.
Yes, Australia beat India in the 1st test by 333 runs. A spinner no-one rated name Steve O'Keeffe took 6-35 in both innings and Kohli and Indian Coach, Anil Kumble refused to acknowledge that performance. Now Nathan Lyon has taken best-ever figures of 8-50 to begin the 2nd test. Who said, "pride comes before a fall"? How true. But how has Australia turned around their performance to dominate this series so far? Read on for my opinion...
1) Australia has prepared well
By spending a week in Dubai to acclimatise to sub-Continent conditions the Australian Cricket team show serious intent in being competitive this series.
2) India has played too many matches since October 2016
On the other hand, the Indians prepared for this 4-match series against Australia by play a test against Bangladesh. This is the exact opposite intent to the Australians practice in Dubai. Add the 5-test series against England and 3-test series against New Zealand and I think what we have is Indian players suffering burnout. Their administrators thought that the team will just need to show up to beat the Australians. They probably thought that after losing so badly in Pune by 333 runs that the Indian team will turn it around. They still may do so. However, the Indians need to now acknowledge that they aren't playing badly, they're been outdone by a quality well-prepared Australian team willing to admit their past faults on the sub-Continent.
3) Australia is showing adaptability and application
They've talked about the importance of patience and defence in batting. They've talked about adapting in their bowling. In fact, whatever the Australian team has talked about doing, they've been specific about. In contrast, the Indians have been talking in non-stop generalisations, hence why they've been making the same mistakes. If you can identify what needs to be done on the field, you're more likely to do it. Sounds simple doesn't it?
4) India can still come back but it will take incredible application to do so
Sure, it's happened before. Think 2001 and V.V.S Laxman's 281 (and Rahul Dravid's 180) in the 2nd test, coupled with Harbajhan Singh taking 32 wickets in a 3-test series. Think about it, because this is what India will need to be competitive with the Australians right now. Virat Kohli mentioned after the 1st test at Pune that India beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in 2015 in Sri Lanka after losing the 1st test there. Sure, that happened but look closer...India won the 2nd and 3rd test scoring totals above 300 nearly every innings. Not even Ashwin and Jadeja can help you if your batting can't get past 200.
Can Australia win this series? All they need is to win one more test and they will retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Then we may need to talk about comparisons to Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson 1989. But to quote a famous sporting cliché, "let's not count our chickens before they hatch!"