It has long been heralded as the Aussies’ fortress, but India made a historic dent there in January 2021 handing the hosts’ their first loss on the ground after the 1988 defeat at the hands of the West Indies
Strategy to tame the seemingly invincible Travis Head and negotiating the fiery Aussie pace trio would be key
A couple of replacements in the offing to plug the weaknesses experienced in the Adelaide debacle
Services of skiddy Mohd Shami, who has an impressive track record playing on Aussie wickets, being direly missed
Aussies will be under pressure trying to avoid the ignominy of a hattrick of Test series losses against India at home
India have slid to the third place on the ICC World Test Championship 2025 points table
In the ultimate analysis, Travis Head and a uniformly fiery Aussie pace bowling attack made all the difference as India plummeted from an overwhelming 295-run victory in the first of the 5-match away Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Perth to a crushing 10-wicket defeat in the second at Adelaide.
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Scores even in equal measure, leaving the series wide open. Good for cricket, but India go into the third Test, beginning at The Gabba in Brisbane on Saturday, with a few worries, but also with fond memories of the historic three-wicket win there in the summer of 2021 which propelled Player of the Match Rishab Pant to stardom. Australia will also be under pressure, trying to avoid a hattrick of Test series losses against India at home.
Pink ball was always going to be a big test for the visitors against the masters of the double-lacquered ball, with India’s nightmarish second innings total of 36 in first Test of the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy, after taking a first innings lead, weighing heavy on their minds.
There were no demons in the pitch, just the usual pink ball lateral movement which extends for a longer period and the greater skid off the wicket the ball generates. Yet, Indian batters failed to effectively negotiate the pink ball, to the extent that they could not post a single half-century in either inning.
The last time India reportedly suffered the same fate was in the 2021 World Test Championship final against New Zealand at Southampton.
The two top guns, captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, around whom the entire batting unit is expected to build the innings, failed miserably yet again. The Indian pace bowling unit in its entirety also failed to exploit the conditions as well as the Aussies did.
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Which begs the question – was there a difference in how the Indian side was led in the first Test as against the second? One might say a one-off Test is not a justifiable ground for comparison, but cricket observers found more aggression, tact and intent in Jasprit Bumrah, who stood in as captain in the first Test in the absence of Rohit Sharma, than the regular captain’s leadership on his return for the second Test.
Standout Nitish Reddy
However, amidst the dampened spirits, the standout consistent performances of young allrounder Nitish Reddy with the bat deserves to be applauded. Making his Test debut in the first Test at Perth, the promising youngster lived up to his billing.
With his 42 runs apiece (off 54 and 47 balls respectively) in both innings at Adelaide, that too while facing the pink ball in international cricket for the first time, he is now the top-scoring Indian batter in three of the four innings he has played so far. He was also the highest Indian scorer (41 off 59 balls) in the first innings of the Perth Test.
With this, Nitish Reddy has become only the second Indian, and eighth batter worldwide, to top score in three of his first four innings. Sunil Gavaskar reportedly did it in his debut series against the West Indies back in 1971.
Probable changes in playing XI
To leave the terrible loss at Adelaide behind them and make a strong comeback in the third Test at Brisbane, the Indian side is expected to affect a couple of changes in the playing XI to plug some of the weaknesses experienced.
Among the probable replacements could be pacer Akash Deep for Harshit Rana, who leaked a lot of runs and remained wicketless and scoreless; and allrounder Washington Sundar returning for the third Test, after being dropped in the second, replacing Ravichandran Ashwin.
Along with Rishab Pant, Sundar played a stellar role in the historic India win at Brisbane in 2021, scalping four Aussie batsmen (three in the first innings and one in the second) and contributing more than useful scores of 62 and 22.
Direly missing Shami
India is apparently direly missing the services of skiddy Mohd Shami, who has been missing from international cricket since the 2023 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup, recovering from an ankle injury. A master at exploiting the ball’s seam position, Shami has an impressive track record playing in Australia. In tandem with Jasprit Bumrah, he was largely instrumental in India’s maiden Test series victory on Australian soil in 2018-19.
He was also reportedly the leading wicket-taker for India in the 2015 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Mohammed Shami has featured in eight Test matches on Australian soil so far, claiming 31 wickets at a decent bowling average of 32.16. The speedster has two five-wicket hauls to his name in Australia in Test cricket.
Memories 2020-21
Just for memories, the composition of team for the historic January 2021 Test match at the Gabba in Brisbane was very different from what it is now. Ajinkya Rahane had stood in as captain in place of Virat Kohli. Then there were Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan and Navdeep Saini.
Pujara had proven to be the glue that kept India’s innings together on the final day, taking blow after blow in an innings of 56 that consumed 211 deliveries against the very same Aussie pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. It gave the likes of Shubman Gill (91), Washington Sundar (22) and Pant (89 not out) the freedom to flourish. Which is exactly the role expected of Rohit and Kohli now.
Mohd. Siraj was the pace spearhead in the match, claiming a fifer in the second innings. Shardul Thakur also had a memorable match plundering the Aussie bowlers for 67 in India’s first outing and claiming seven wickets in the match. Left-armer T Natarajan took three wickets in Australia’s first innings. Navdeep Saini had remained wicketless.
Aussie fortress
According to the website https://thecricketlounge.com/, that historic win, however, was the only one by India in seven Test matches against Australia at the Gabba, which has long been heralded as the hosts’ fortress. Of the other Tests against India, Aussies have won five and one was drawn.
That January 2021victory came after 32 years of Australian invincibility at the Gabba, breaking a record that had stood since West Indies last defeated Australia there in 1988.
The website further stated that this stark record paints a picture of a venue where resilience, strategy, and sheer cricketing skill are tested to their limits. Australia’s robust record at this iconic ground stands thus: Matches played – 66, matches won – 43, matches drawn – 13, and matches lost – 10.
ICC World Test Championship points table
India need to fight hard in the remaining three Test matches of the tour if they are to remain in the reckoning for a place in the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2025. With their loss in Adelaide, India have slid to the third place on the points table. South Africa with a 109-run win over Sri Lanka in the final Test of the current series on December 9 have replaced Australia at the top of the table.
