The expectations are mind-boggling. India must win the fourth Test at any cost, with or without Virat Kohli, and re-confirm the belief that this is a team that is best trained to dominate the longest format of the game.
Irrespective of how hard Australia tries to make a strong statement of its endurance and depth, the onus is on India’s young brigade to ensure a finish that would give the home team the series that began on a tempestuous note following the heavy loss in the opener at Pune.
There is little buzz about the event here — the first ever Test at this captivating venue. Those busy have been the ground staff, as always, and the players, the central characters as always.
It will be a moment of reckoning for the Indian team as it looks to dominate in circumstances that most proclaim suit the Australians more. The reference to the pitch being bouncy and thus favouring the visiting side is, however, the least worrying factor for the Indian camp.
This is a team that has been nurtured by Kohli and coach Anil Kumble to assume an all-weather reputation. There are specialists to perform specific roles and now is the time to test them. Even as the ground staff worked furiously to scrape the grass off the pitch one was left wondering if Indian cricket had made the progress to be rated a combination that can cause a cricket tremor, a team for all seasons.
To exploit home advantage is acceptable to a certain extent. Which team would not do so? India has come up with playing surfaces that typify the existing nature of the pitches in the sub-continent — slow and low. Having bred on such pitches it is natural for the batsmen to adopt a different approach when confronted with a surface that allows more than average pace and bounce. That is the challenge that confronts them on the eve of the Test. What if the ball climbs at their throat? What if it deviates alarmingly and mocks at their technique to tackle seam movement?
These are questions that may need to be addressed here. Keeping in mind India’s impending assignments overseas in the next few years — Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa — it is imperative that the team takes a realistic assessment test here. Is it a team that can excel in unfriendly conditions? Kohli and Kumble would like us to believe that Indian cricket is moving in the right direction.
One encounter may not reflect on the actual strength of the team. The immediate goal is to win this series contested in extreme acrimony that has taken the sheen off the action in the middle. But the trigger point has been the happenings on the field.
Obviously it can be put on hold since India and Australia are teams best equipped to produce cracking stuff in contemporary cricket. They would have to rise above the mundane and banal to respect the emotions of the fans who expect their heroes to be on their best behaviour.
The series has generated heat on and off the field, evoking sharp responses from the traditionalists, who prefer the game to maintain its dignity in times when Test cricket is struggling to fight the encroachment by the T20 brand.
It would be naive to even suggest that Test cricket may lose its sheen against the rising stature of the shortest format but then it is for India and Australia to prove it here by producing action that befits the character and dignity of Test cricket. They owe it to their legions of fans.
The teams (from):
India: Virat Kohli (capt.), K.L. Rahul, M. Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund and Shreyas Iyer.
Australia: Steve Smith (capt.), David Warner, Matt Renshaw, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Steve O’Keefe, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson, Jackson Bird, Usman Khawaja and Marcus Stoinis.
Umpires: Marais Erasmus and Ian Gould.
Match starts at 9.30 a.m.
