“Mate, the Indian team bus is going to pull up anytime, soon, all ready?” A man with a walkie talkie asks a security guard near an entrance to the Gabba. It’s around 8:45 am on Thursday. “Not many fans here as yet,” wonders the guard, and the walkie-talkie man smiles, “good for us, isn’t it!”. Across the road from them, a controversial train station is being constructed. An underground rail tunnel has already been built. There is no scaffolding to block it. None is needed either as no dust swirls up from the site, unlike in India. “Dust? Oh we sprinkle some chemical stuff into the water, and spray it on the site every morning. The dust doesn’t lift,” says a construction worker, out for a smoke.
The station was intended for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, and the Gabba was supposed to be pulled down and rebuilt according to the needs for that global event. But that $ 2.7billion dollar rebuilding plan is now on hold as Gabba has proved an architectural nightmare. It’s almost sandwiched amidst a cluster of buildings that surround it and there is a school nearby. The entire arena’s footprint doesn’t apparently match Olympic requirements. A review is on.
Inside the stadium, the dust on the India-Australia series has just kicked up after it went even-steven at Adelaide and the caravan moves to the Gabbatoir. It’s an unimpressive character-less stadium that won’t look out of place somewhere in the interiors of India. All concrete with no air blowing across as there aren’t any gaps in the structure. It does have a feel of a cauldron, as a result. The coloured bucket seats and the amenities might make it look modern, but it’s not going to be in contention amongst the pretty cricket stadiums in the world. It’s here that the two teams are trying to break the deadlock and get ahead in the series.
It’s burning hot on Thursday. The weather app says it’s just 28 degrees but it feels like 34-35, if not more. There is a fair sprinkling of grass on the pitch, but the curator has said that there might be some grass-cutting sessions left. That they have been careful with the grass because of the heat. There was some rain on Tuesday, but nothing since then. Much would depend on the liveness of the grass that’s finally retained on Saturday when the Test begins, but it’s hard to tell now.
The large Indian contingent spread around the centre ground near the boundary on one side. About 45 people, that includes the players and the support staff, have been here on this tour. The players stretch, warm-up, and begin to take catches. Soon, the action shifts to the outdoor nets for an intense two-hour batting session. Tremendously focussed, each batsman was trying to work out a method that would work for them in the game, and the bowlers doing their thing. Gautam Gambhir stood as an ‘umpire’ in one of the nets, motionless for a long time, just staring ahead. Behind him, at a short distance, the chief selector Ajit Agarkar kept stretching.
The nets don’t always offer a definite clue, but based on the proceedings it did seem Akash Deep might play ahead of Harshit Rana. Deep bowled far more than Rana, and also batted a bit, with the assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate crouching at a silly-point position whenever Deep played a spinner. For a while it seemed R Ashwin, who did bowl a bit at the start, wasn’t really involved in the scheme of things but after a chat with Gambhir, he went to bat. Admittedly it was the spare bowlers that he faced, which also included Morne Morkel. The bowling coach bowled without worrying about no-balls, but he did manage to extract disconcerting bounce – just like his playing days, and beaming a smile as the balls would fly past Ashwin’s face or chest.
It also seemed as if Ravindra Jadeja wouldn’t be playing the game as he didn’t bowl or bat for any meaningful length of time. For a long while, Sarfaraz Khan sat behind the nets, outside, picking up any balls that managed to squeeze outside the net. Until, finally he got a chance to bat a bit against the throw-down specialists. Bumrah and Siraj were unsurprisingly the pick of the bowlers, with Deep too managing to nick off a few batsmen with his skiddy pace.
Perhaps, they weren’t aware of the timings, not many fans had turned up. In theory, they can access the nets from behind the batting fence which is almost near the edge of the arena, and not far from the road. They would come in more numbers for the afternoon session and be disappointed that the Indian players had already finished. “Are they warming up inside?” Nope. “Oh no, will they be at the hotel?”
It’s just not IPL and such that’s erasing the ‘otherness’ about the Indians amongst the Australians. In their daily life, they are bound to be working, moving around with the Indians. According to a 2021 official census, 51,650 people born in India live in Brisbane. Nearly 55% of them had become Australian citizens by then. At the end of June 2022, 753,520 Indian-born people were living in Australia, more than twice the number (355,380) at 30 June 2012. A number that’s likely to have grown far more since. All that has been reflected so far in the promotions for this series in the media.
No Indian player fronted up to the media on Thursday; Mitch Marsh would do for the Australians and would talk how just as Australia did in Adelaide, Indians will look to bounce back strongly here. “They are a very good team”.
In the afternoon, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and the rest sweated it out at the nets in the sun. Josh Hazlewood didn’t bowl, Scott Boland did. Near the end, after his stint, Khawaja, the home boy of sorts, stood near the tents, joking and smiling a lot with a few of his team-mates. He too needs a knock of substance and nothing like home arena to do it.
The batsman who perhaps needs some runs is the Indian captain Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli batted the most at the nets but Rohit too had multiple stints, trying to get himself ready. It was a high-intense session for all the players. They have done their prep; now it’s time to hope it pays off on Saturday.
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