India vs Australia: Love-two, yet hope too

At that point, all action around him paused for a moment. The batsmen in the adjoining nets each looked over their shoulders and then returned to their respective stance. So did Kohli. For the next 15-20 minutes or so, he middled every ball. Then he moved on to the spinners’ net.

If only someone at some point had pushed the pause button during the first two Tests and asked India to get their act straight. To just realign themselves and get back on track. For despite what the scoreline says presently — that India are trailing 0-2 — the visitors have done enough both in Adelaide and Brisbane to have gotten better results.

Almost famous

They had come close in Adelaide. Closer than many would have imagined. “A lot of people thought we would easily but this team has come out and shown character,” Kohli had said after the Test. He was right. He was justified in sounding a tad cocky about his team’s ‘almost heroes’ achievement. Led by his boom or bust philosophy they had almost created history.

At the Gabba they had held all aces till the third morning before one misfiring ploy led to an Aussie revival. The next morning they suffered a brain freeze, the kind we are now accustomed to from this Indian team. They never recovered from it. They lost wickets in a breeze and their chances of a famous win were blown away within those 40 minutes of play.

Three years ago, India were at a similar stage after the first two Tests. They had started their campaign with the Boxing Day Test on that occasion. A match, where they were in front for major parts but failed to deliver the killer blow. Partnerships late in the order for Australia had thwarted them in both innings. The second Test at the SCG was more one-sided even though Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar did threaten to save the day.

That was a different Australia though. It was a team that included a rampant Michael Clarke, a resurgent Ricky Ponting and a typically relentless Michael Hussey. All three scored runs. Clarke had scored a triple-century and was due for a double-hundred in the third. By the time the teams headed for the third Test in 2012, the naysayers had seen enough to start framing cricketing obituaries for the senior members of the side. It didn’t take long for the innumerable calls of ‘out with the old, in with the new’ to emerge. With nothing left to lose, Sachin Tendulkar & Co were hoping to turnaround their fortunes, to force a revival. It never happened. They only lost their way completely, and were humbled at Perth and Adelaide. To be honest, a whitewash had seemed on the cards even before they left the MCG.

Thin line of separation

This time around, you still somehow feel that the Indians are just a good session away from overcoming an Australia team that have mirrored them in terms of inexperience. A 4-0 score-line just seems a tad far-fetched even at this stage unlike last time.

Normally, you would expect the team trailing 0-2 to have all the selectorial headaches. Strangely, it’s the hosts who are battling more concerns over their playing XI. They have an opener who’s retirement plans have already been laid out, a No.3 who has been performing more as a bowling all-rounder batting in the top-order, and a No.5, who still plays every Test like it was his first—with the same anxiety anyway. At the MCG they’ll have a debutant in Joe Burns walking out at No.6. And then they have an aging wicket-keeper who has hardly scored a run since his heroics in the Ashes last year. This despite the fact that Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh and Brad Haddin are the senior statesmen of an otherwise young outfit, at least in terms of age.

India on the other hand will welcome back their best bowler in England, which in turn also adds an additional sting to their tail. If the practice wickets are anything to go by, the centre should have plenty of spice in it for the seamers from both side, which will make Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s inclusion all the more fruitful to the Indian cause as they look to bring the series back to life.

Boxing Day is more than a game of cricket. It’s an occasion. It’s a celebration. And it almost seems inevitable that Kohli will in the thick of action yet again. You just know it.

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Sledger-in-chief Warner wants to get into more Indian heads

Melbourne: Australia’s chirpy opening batsman David Warner has described his team’s mental battles with opponents as banter, not sledging, and says he has no plans to curb the exchanges despite things getting lost in translation occasionally. Australia are renowned for their chatter in the middle, which has often put the team in hot water.

The recent death of Australia batsman Phillip Hughes prompted calls by pundits for cricketers to be more civil to each other out in the field of battle. And for three days of the series-opening Test in Adelaide between Australia and India, it appeared the calls had been heeded.

Then Warner, as so often before, managed to get under his opponents’ skin. Warner was given an almighty send-off when bowled by paceman Varun Aaron on day four but had the last laugh when the wicket was disallowed after a television replay showed the bowler had overstepped the crease on his delivery.

Warner would score two centuries for the match. Since then, it has been ‘game on’ and Warner said on Wednesday more of the same could be expected during the third Test in Melbourne with the hosts carrying a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

“If it requires a little bit of banter to get the other person talking, that’s what is going to happen,” Warner told reporters. “Some players, they don’t say anything at all, but then when they do, you know you’ve gotten into them and they’re actually listening to you. You know you’re in their head.

“I like to go at them, to try and get them to bite back at me when I go out there and bat. At the moment it’s working.”

Warner was sledger-in-chief during the Ashes series — even off the field when assessing the struggles of England batsman Jonathan Trott. India has proved a bit of a challenge, though. “It’s quite tough with nations that speak different languages,” Warner said. “The aim for us it’s not really sledging, it’s more banter.”

(Reuters)