The gloves are off, so is everything

Newspaper reports here on the Indians are littered with words like ‘‘amateurish’’, ‘‘brittle’’ and ‘‘insipid’’ and not even a serious ball has been bowled yet. And if that isn’t enough to unhinge the opposition, awaiting them today is a Gabba pitch whose pace and bounce promise a hostile examination of technique and character.

Welcome to Australia, where the acceptable idea of hospitality is attempting dentistry on visiting players with a leather ball with no thought to anaesthetic. This is cricket at its most demanding. Good teams are made to look mediocre, and average teams are left in squabbling disarray.

Yesterday, Ganguly was asked if Australia is India’s final frontier, a phrase used to describe Steve Waugh’s tryst with the subcontinent. Ganguly did not take the bait for it is an erroneous assumption. Waugh’s team has conquered most of the world, Ganguly’s team has yet to plant a flag on foreign soil. If anything, Australia is the Hardest Frontier, manned by a history-making captain whose squint-eyed look during combat bears a remarkable resemblance to Clint Eastwood.

Much of the pleasure of this tour will arrive from watching Ganguly collide with Waugh. During their last confrontation, in 2001, Waugh was so incensed by Ganguly’s behaviour (i.e. his turning up late for the toss) that any minute you expected him to pull on a ruffled shirt and challenge the Indian captain to a duel at 20 paces.

Waugh yesterday said it was in the past and that he expected both captains to ‘‘walk out together’’ for it was a sign of mutual respect. Ganguly, a canny and feisty fellow, has in turn been all diplomacy, even charmingly jousting with a reporter over Warne’s bouncer threat. ‘‘That’s the way they play cricket, it’s tough’’, he replied. Asked if he expected a working over by the fast bowlers, he grinned and said ‘‘Yes’’. He knows, of course, that this was all shadow-boxing; the real punches will be thrown today.

Ganguly is not without humility, evident in the fact that he has not spoken boldly about a series victory. Perhaps he knows there is nothing to be gained by Christians taunting the Lions. Last week, over dinner, he noted that ‘‘we will have to play out of our skins’’ to win a single Test. Evidently his team knows its place.

His side has displayed more character of late that we are used to and, like experienced boxers, do not quit at the mere sight of a split lip. There is a spirit here not easily extinguished. But sessions with psychologist Sandy Gordon and a battling attitude will not suffice. Eventually this is a confrontation of skill.

The Indians may study videos and draw up plans like determined generals but ultimately, as Ganguly conceded, theory never wins matches. It is one thing to know where to bowl to Matthew Hayden, quite another to ensure the bowler obeys that command consistently. In the Indian captain’s words, what matters is ‘‘what you do in the centre’’, the ability to mesh talent with commitment and discipline.

Ganguly’s team appear likely to turn up with a four-man attack of Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Harbjahan Singh, a mix of pace and spin expected to be mirrored by the Australians. While literally the Indians will need to get on the back foot, figuratively they will have to do the reverse. To allow Australia early advantage is akin to putting one’s head on a guillotine and shouting ‘‘pull’’.

Ganguly’s team is not to be envied. India have never beaten Australia here and lost the last tour 3-0 in 1999-2000. Now they face a team that has surpassed mere greatness and become the very representation of cricketing excellence. Australia is the standard by which every other team is measured.

Sanjay Manjrekar said some weeks ago that Indians teams of his era were not capable of surprise ‘‘but this team is’’, and it is this hope that India clings to. Expecting Ganguly to produce a miracle, something which is usually to the preserve of dubious godmen, may be too much. But India’s public at least expects a contest.