India are staring at a 0-1 deficit in the four-match series against Australia after the visitors’s remarkable win Pune. With all the talk about the Pune pitch, a factor that has not been talked about much is Australia’s first win in India since 2004 - or 4502 days as per Steve Smith’s count.
Virat Kohli and team are up against a 44-year-old jinx in their attempt to overturn the opening Test loss and win the series. It’s going to be an uphill task for the hosts, but certainly not undoable. Remember 2001?
Adam Gilchrist, the former Australian wicket-keeper batsman, has the experience of being on both the victorious and losing end after winning the opening Test in India. Gilchrist was the stand-in captain when Australia won the ‘Final Frontier’ with a big win in Nagpur back in 2004. He was also there in 2001, when India scripted a fantastic Test comeback.
Understandably, he had a word of caution for Steve Smith and co about getting too ahead of themselves after the heady win.
Talking to Mumbai Mirror, Gilchrist said that the visitors should not be carried away by their early success in Pune. “... I will say that ‘learn from the last game whatever you could but remember that it will be none for none before the start of the next Test’. My knowledge of India is that it requires small steps and don’t think too far ahead. What we have learnt from 2001 was that we smashed India in the first Test in three days at the Wankhede, we had India on the ropes at Eden Gardens and then we lost sight of what we had to do. We were almost thinking about the celebrations. They can’t even consider thinking about the series so early now. They must only focus on Day One of Bangalore now,” he said.
The Aussie also had a thing or two to say about the infamous Pune pitch, the extra turn in which meant the first Test was wrapped in under three days. “They (Indian team management) can go for a conventional pitch (In Bangalore) which plays well early on and then deteriorates later or prefer the one like in Pune which was substandard. They can do that but they probably run the risk of losing another toss. If they win the toss, India will logically dominate the Test match and if they lose the toss, they could find themselves in trouble. And that would be risky when you are down in the series,” he added.
Having said that, Gilchrist also affirmed that he expects India to strike back strongly. Reiterating that Virat Kohli is a world class player and R Ashwin will pose a stiff challenge, he said that Indian players were capable of playing high quality cricket on good pitches.
While the pitch in Banaglore will come under a lot of scrutiny ahead of the second Test on Friday, the Indian team will also be under pressure to put in a creditable performance after the capitulation in Pune. It is fair to say that the rest of the four-match series will be decided in how the Bangalore pitch plays out.