Aussie Achilles

India, alone has been able to perform the dual task of pinning their batsmen down, and keeping them there, regularly.

Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar went to Australia after the 1999 World Cup with revenge on their mind, and were reminded of Newton’s laws. The faster they came at them the faster they were hit back. Ditto South Africa, with Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini, and Nantie Hayward losing more than just their reputation and poise. They have never been the same again.

The tale has been sorrier for other lesser teams who have visited or hosted Australia over the last five years.

India, though, have constantly managed to get under the aggressive Australian skins and triggered off some of their major batting failures. Of the eight Tests Australia have lost since 2001, four have been to India. The other four defeats have been dead rubbers. In three of those defeats their bowlers have failed to defend targets in excess of 300.

Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble have ended 105 Australian innings between them in seven Tests each of them have played against them. Out of 11 match winning bowling efforts against them, Indians have enacted eight. Justin Langer has averaged 36.09 against India, getting out to Agarkar five times in 11 Tests. His average otherwise has been 46.20. Adam Gilchrist, who single-handedly personifies the aggressive Aussie attitude, has averaged 24.33 against India. 54.73 average.

Australian success is judged not so much by the statistics, as by the domination they exercise, the extent to which they put their opposition off their game. Indian bowlers, even if not statistically successful, have not been forced to change their game by Australians. Ajit Agarkar loves bowling out-swing; he has bowled that, and has had success at that. Harbhajan has bowled with an uncomplicated off-spinner’s principle, and has found unsure batsmen at the other end.

HARBHAJAN and Kumble have kept coming back at them. This is the Aussies’ game and they hate it when somebody else does it to them. They have shown a tendency to get flustered when somebody keeps getting in their face, without fail. How an 18-year-old Harbhajan, who refused to bowl a flat delivery after being hit for a six, ticked off Ricky Ponting in Sharjah was only a pointer to what standing up to them does. Michael Slater showed, in Mumbai, how Rahul Dravid had put him off his game by standing his ground.

“Look at Murali, he has picked 28 wickets against Australia in three matches, but he does not irritate them as much as Harbhajan, or even Danish Kaneria does,” says Krishna Tunga, who assists John Buchanan with his statistical inputs. “Australia has to be beaten at their own game. One has to get to their heads to make them do things they normally would not.”

Give them a spinning ball, and their heads spin with it. This Australian side has shown an obvious weakness against spin, and not only on sub-continent pitches but also on home tracks. In the 2003-04 Indian tour Down Under, Kumble took 24 wickets in three matches at 29.58, and Agarkar took 16 in 4 Tests at 37.25.

The unsure feet against spin show in four five-wicket hauls Muttiah Muralitharan and Daniel Vettori have each got against them.

But, Indian combination had support bowlers (seamers) taking key wickets at the right moments. If Kumble got the maximum wickets in Australia, Agarkar chipped in by destroying the tail at Adelaide; Irfan Pathan picked up Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh before they could get going at Sydney. When, in 2000-01, Harbhajan was picking Aussies up at the rate of seven-a-session, it were the pacers, in Zaheer Khan and Agarkar, who got Michael Slater in all the first innings, preventing Australia from putting together a demoralising opening partnership.

Muralithatran and Vettori, on the other hand, have not been able to conjure up enough of such support to trouble the Australian batters relentlessly.

T A Shekhar, chief bowling coach at MRF Pace Academy agrees. “Indian swing bowlers, combined well with the spinners to provide crucial breakthroughs. More than the spinners or the pacers alone, it is their combination that has troubled them more,” says Shekhar.

“It’s the presence of the right kind of variety in Indian attack that has helped too. South Africa, for example, did not have any spinner. Vaas has not been able to do well for Sri Lanka, to assist Murali.”

Front feet planted down the track prematurely; trouble with Ajit Agarkar, who, otherwise, fails to make it to a regular Indian side, are these signs of a weakness against swing bowling?

Bruce Reid, Australia’s swing bowler of the 80s who helped the Indian team on their Australian tour of 2003-04, had earlier commented this Indian team is the only side in the world that has a bunch of players that is a good exponent of late swing. “With there being no genuine swing bowlers on the Australian domestic circuit, they are found wanting against the moving ball,” said Reid, “Most international batsman cope with swing and adjust accordingly but it is late swing that will worry even the best.”

Tunga disagrees. “Yes, Agarkar and Pathan have done well against Australia, but because Australian openers are aggressive, and they lose their wickets playing attacking shots.”

Theories might be different but India, for a fact, has constantly bothered Australia, and England could take a cue from their former colony. England have come the closest to putting Australia off their game, but it takes relentless aggression to do that. The Ashes summer is long, and there is still time to show Australia that they are not fazed. The first scar might be on the faces, second and third ones will stay on the minds.