wisden india extra issue 6

ISSUE 6, DECEMBER 2014

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TESTING TIMESI N D I A T O U R O F A U S T R A L I A 2 0 1 4 - 1 5


63 NOT OUT, FOREVERPAGE 4

Edited by: Karunya Keshav Designed by: Ashish Mohanty

All pictures published as part of Testing Times courtesy of Getty Images and Wisden India Archive

WHAT’S INSIDE

INITIATION BY PACE AND BOUNCE It’s an inexperienced Indian side that is travelling to Australia, but the first-timers could well be the ones best equipped to grapple with the conditions Down Under Shamya Dasgupta | 32

“SPINNERS ARE AS GOOD AS THE CAPTAIN LETS THEM BE“A bowler’s perspective on playing in AustraliaErapalli Prasanna | 54

PHILLIP JOEL HUGHES If fate had been kinder, Phillip Hughes would have been nursing nothing more than a bad headache. This was not how the story was supposed to endDileep Premachandran | 04

THE GAME COMES SECONDWith the players in different stages of mourning and grie-ving, taking the field as scheduled was never a realistic possibilityAnand Vasu | 06

SCALING THE FINAL FRONTIER What is it that makes playing in Australia so much of a challenge? Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman on the adjust-ments to be made to be successfulR Kaushik | 12

WHERE THE BANTER STARTS EARLYThe vast majority appreciates a keen contest. But when the visitors are hapless, the contempt – both from the stands and the media boxes – can be witheringDileep Premachandran | 23

SPARKS OF GLORYDuring the hunt for that elusive series victory have come some classic individual performancesManoj Narayan | 27

“OUR SPINNERS COULDN‘T GET U-16 OUT“Matthew Hayden on the India-Australia rivalry and the teams’ chances ahead of their next meetingKritika Naidu | 57

DASH OF SPICEIndia’s tours of Australia have resulted in a fair few controversies, raised hackles and he-said-Sachin-said. But here’s what really happened Saurabh Somani | 19

IT‘S ALWAYS A LONG, TOUGH TOUR Australia has a lot to offer off the field, but if you’re not playing well, three to four months in the continent can be difficult Kiran More | 37

DUELS OF THE GREATSThere has been no dearth of fascinating individual contests over the years in AustraliaSidhanta Patnaik | 39

HIGH-IMPACT HISTORYThe Indians who have done well on the high-pressure tours of Australia

50

THE ONE THAT GOT MIANDADThe 1985 World Championship of Cricket win inspired modern greats of Indian cricket, who in turn inspired millions more, says Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, as he shares his highlights of the tournament

Karthik Lakshmanan | 43


4 − INDIA TOUR OF AUSTRALIA


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Phillip Joel Hughes1988-2014DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN

“A torrent of words came forth in the vain wish to

do justice to the young man and his deeds. Then life

went on again, almost as before, leaving only photo-

graphs, grey columns of prose, a few handwritten let-

ters, and, over a plot of Australia’s hard brown earth,

a gravestone on which the inscription proclaims with

beautiful simplicity: ‘He played the game.’”

David Frith wrote those words in The Archie Jackson

Story. Tragically, four decades after its publication,

we are left to ponder those lines again.

If fate had been kinder, Phillip Hughes would have

been nursing nothing more than a bad headache,

while reflecting on a deserved recall to the Australian

Test side. Instead, his family, teammates, those that

played against him and watched him are left with a

sensation of numbness and incomprehension. This

was not how the story was supposed to end.

Like Jackson 80 years before him, Hughes was a

teenage prodigy, marked for greatness before his

chin needed a razor. Who can forget the early head-

lines? Youngest to make a hundred in a Sheffield

Shield final. Second only to Bradman when it came to

the rate at which he got to 1500 first-class runs. The

youngest to score centuries in both innings of a Test.

Close on the heels of the retirements of Justin Langer

and Matthew Hayden, a place at the top of Australia’s

batting order seemed to be his for the taking.

Almost inevitably, days of famine followed those of

plenty, but through it all, the smile seldom wavered.

A technique that few could fathom probably went

against him, as others were given far longer ropes,

but there were plenty of signs in the past 12 months

that he was close to wresting back his place in the XI.

As the days and years pass, we will remember those

twin centuries in Durban, and the exuberance behind

the heaved sixes that took him to three figures for

the first time. We will recall too that more often than

not, he played with a grin on his face.

Just how good might he have become?

Not yet 26, he had already made 26 first-class hund-

reds. Virat Kohli, a few days older, has half that num-

ber. Whether it was a low-profile game for Australia

A or a Twenty20 hit-out, Hughes’s appetite for runs

bordered on the gluttonous. When the cricketing

gods called time, he was unbeaten on 63, possibly on

his way to another century.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow

old,” says Laurence Binyon’s Ode of Remembrance.

“Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We

will remember them.”


THE GAME COMES SECONDWith the players in different stages of mourning and grieving, taking the field as scheduled was never a realistic possibilityANAND VASU

It’s not every day that the last thing on anyone’s mind at the start of a cricket tour is the game itself. But, the dramatic and tragic

events that led to the death of Phillip Hughes on November 27 mean that India’s players have plenty of time to contemplate a wide range of themes, the least of which is cricket proper as a tour

that was set in stone and eagerly anticipated has had to perforce be reworked.

Originally scheduled to start at the Gabba in Brisbane on December 4, the first Test will now begin at the Adelaide Oval on December 9. On December 3, Australia bid farewell to a beloved son in his hometown of Macksville

in New South Wales. With the players, especially those involved in the game when Hughes was struck by that fateful Sean Abbott bouncer, in different stages of mourning and grieving, taking the field as scheduled was never a realistic possibility.

Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, who referred to Hughes as

SERIES PREVIEW


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his brother, was distraught when he fronted the media, paying a rich and emotional tribute not only in his newspaper column on what would have been Hughes’s 26th birthday, but in an emotional press conference the previous day. “I was drawn to him instantly, falling for his cheeky grin and love of life,” Clarke wrote for the Sunday

Telegraph. “Phillip truly was uncomplicated – what you saw was what you got. I don’t think in 12 years of playing cricket at the top level I have ever come across a more loyal or generous-hearted teammate.”

Clarke underlined the manner in which Hughes had reacted to the setbacks he suffered in the

Emotions are running high in both camps, and the players find themselves in a situation so unfamiliar that there is no previous experience to fall back on for comfort, no Plan B in place to help them

NEW LOOK This time round in Australia, India have no real cause for complaint.


course of his career. “Whenever Hughesy suffered adversity – if he was replaced in the team or if he wasn’t scoring as many runs as he wanted – he never dropped his head, never once complained,” wrote Clarke. “If he had a tough conversation with a selector, he would nod, agree he needed to work harder, grin because he felt bad for the person delivering the message, and then get on with it.”

It goes without saying that the healing process will only truly begin when the players

take the field once more. But there was certainly no sense in rushing things. Even when they do eventually take the field, it’s uncertain exactly how the players will approach the game. Will Varun Aaron, the quickest bowler India have had in their ranks for the longest time, bounce David Warner first up? Will Clarke, who has suffered so much, unleash Mitchell Johnson in those characteristic fiery four-over bursts with the same freedom as he has done to great success in the past?

Emotions are running high in both camps, and the players find themselves in a situation so unfamiliar that there is no previous experience to fall back on for comfort, no Plan B in place to help them cope. Cricket Australia, led admirably by James Sutherland, who was a fast-medium bowler himself, have put excellent support systems in place for their wards, and, for their part, the Board of Control for Cricket in India have stepped up, showing the appropriate concern and patience.

EMOTIONAL The Australian

team is grieving as a group.


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India must not merely show the stomach for a fight, they need to win matches in Australia for the health of the sport

For the moment, the Indian team is in Adelaide, and in training. The Australian team is grieving as a group, with some like Ryan Harris inititally considering pulling out of the first Test at least.

Now, though, all the players can do is wait. It’s an uneasy period for everyone, but in the larger context, patience is the only option, and time the greatest healer.

In another sense, this Indian tour of Australia is a test not merely of the teams, but of the health of the world game. India must not merely show the stomach for a fight, they need to be competitive enough to win matches. For cricket to thrive, Tests must appeal. For Tests to be relevant, there needs to be a modicum of competition among the top teams. India, by virtue of its position at the head of the table among the Big Three, must

deal with the weight of extra expectation.

Given that India lost 0-4 when they travelled to Australia last, failed to win a Test in either South Africa or New Zealand, and racked up three losses after winning at Lord’s on their last England tour, it would be fair to say this team has travelled poorly.

That said, India are not alone in this. Australia got blanked on a tour of India, England have tasted limited success away and it is only South Africa who manage to get across the seas and still retain their winning ways on a consistent basis.

In 40 attempts in Tests in Australia, starting way back in 1947, soon after independence, India have managed just five wins. Only once have India managed to win more than one Test on a tour, and that was in 1977-78, when the Australian team was without the Chappell brothers, Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, Kerry O’Keefe and Doug Walters, all lost to

India, on their first tour post

independence, and missing Vijay

Merchant and Rusi Modi, needed

something inspirational. Their

scores of 58 and 98 in Brisbane

didn’t help. Don Bradman’s 185

and Ernie Toshack’s 11 wickets

sent them crashing to an innings

defeat in the first Test. The script

hardly changed thereafter. They

eked out an 81-run first-innings

lead in Sydney, but rain forced a

draw. Bradman’s twin centuries

in Melbourne helped Australia

run away with it in a little over

three days, while the last two

Tests ended in two more innings

defeats. Vijay Hazare was India‘s

most successful batsman and

his centuries in either innings

at the Adelaide Oval were one

of few bright spots. – Akshay

Gopalakrishnan

Most runs: Don Bradman – 715

runs at 178.75 (Australia); Vijay

Hazare – 429 runs at 47.66 (India)

Most wickets: Ray Lindwall – 18

wickets at 16.88 (Australia); Lala

Amarnath – 13 wickets at 28.15

(India)

TOUR HISTORY

1947-48 (5): AUSTRALIA 4 INDIA 0


World Series Cricket. Even on that occasion, India’s two wins were eclipsed as Australia took the series 3-2. On two other jaunts, India have managed to draw the series, in 1981, under Sunil Gavaskar and in 2003, under Saurav Ganguly. The only other win came on the 2007-08 tour, where Irfan Pathan was Man of the Match in Perth.

The reasons for India’s poor showings in Australia, and they’ve outright lost on 26 occasions, are not overly complicated. In all their trips, India have begun badly, never once winning the first Test. This has allowed Australia to get on top of the visitors, something they are past masters at, and from that point on, it’s a question of playing catch up. On occasion, India have been guilty of not being prepared enough, and being caught on the hop by the extra bounce. On occasion, India have reached Australian shores on the back of too much cricket, and after a couple of

losses, just not had enough steam to engineer a fightback.

This time round, India have no real cause for complaint. Certainly, they would have preferred to reach Australia with three Tests against West Indies under the belt rather than five one-sided One-Day Internationals against Sri Lanka. In the bowling department, India have rarely arrived in Australia with so much pace – Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav consistently clock in the mid-140s and Ishant Sharma, when he hits his straps, is no slouch. Over the course of the last year, once Sachin Tendulkar – the last of a golden generation of Indian batting – called it a day, different young men have performed at different times. All of Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have had their moments. Now, the time has come for them to come together as a unit and fire in unison. Anything short of that, and India will be reading from a depressingly familiar script.

QUIZ, DOWN UNDER

1. After X’s twin centuries in Adelaide in 1947, both splendid, Don Bradman was moved to say: “X is the most graceful batsman it has been my pleasure to watch.” Who is X?

2. For the 1968 Brisbane Test, who was flown in as replacement for BS Chandrasekhar and scored 74 and 101?

3. When Tony Mann scored 105 in the second innings of the Perth Test in 1977, he became only the second batsman to achieve what?

4. During the Benson & Hedges World Championship in 1984-85, which wicketkeeper had 12 dismissals, nearly thrice that of the second best?

5. In the 1991-92 series, who became the youngest man to score a Test century in Australia?

6. A qualified umpire predicted that India would lose the 1999-00 series 3-0. Name him.

7. Although he didn’t play the first Test of the 2003-04 series, who ended as the highest wicket-taker with 24 scalps against his name in the series?

8. Whose quote – ‘One is playing cricket and the other is not’ – did Anil Kumble paraphrase during the ill-tempered Sydney Test in 2008?

9. Which canny seamer took four wickets and was named Man of the Match in the second final in Brisbane en route to India’s VB series win in 2008?

10. When MS Dhoni was handed a one-match ban for slow over-rate in 2011, who led India in the Adelaide Test?

DILEEP V

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SCALING THE FINAL FRONTIERWhat is it that makes playing in Australia so much of a challenge? Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman on the adjustments bowlers and batsmen need to make to be successfulR KAUSHIK

Alongside South Africa, Australia remains the only territory India haven’t

conquered yet in Test cricket. Across ten tours and 40 matches, India have registered only five Test wins Down Under; a series win has remained elusive, though India did come close on a few

occasions, most recently in 2003-04 when their push for victory on the final day of the series at the SCG was thwarted by Steve Waugh, in his farewell Test, and glaring lapses behind the stumps by Parthiv Patel.

What is it that makes playing in

Australia so much of a challenge? What are the adjustments

batsmen and bowlers need to make to be successful there? Few Indians are more qualified than VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble to speak with authority on these issues. In 15 Tests spread over four series, Laxman made 1236 runs at 44.14, inclusive of four centuries. Kumble picked up 49 wickets in ten Tests, including 24 in three games in 2003-04.

PLAYERS’ PERSPECTIVE


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EMPHATIC SHOW

Kumble picked up 49 wickets in ten Tests in Australia.

“Be patient, but not defensive”

On his first Test tour of Australia, in 1999-2000, Anil Kumble had a pretty ordinary run, taking only five wickets from three Tests at an unflattering average of 90. His next seven Tests in Australia brought him 44 wickets as he proved

emphatically that he wasn’t just

a destroyer on designer Indian

pitches.

“One of the huge plusses of

playing in Australia is that you

will get plenty of bounce,” begins

Kumble, fittingly enough because

he thrived on that bounce. “As a

rule, you get very little turn there,

and there isn’t much wear and

tear on the surface when Australia

Because you will get bounce but little else in terms of assistance, you need to be restrictive in your variations and in your lines. You have to bowl a bit slower through the air, you must get the loop going


play India at home because they are wary of the threat Indian spinners pose. Also, the seam of the Kookaburra ball goes fairly quickly and we are generally used to operating with the proud seam that the SG Test ball provides when we play in India. Now that is quite a challenge for a spinner.

“You must perforce operate

with an in-out field. Because you will get bounce but little else in terms of assistance, you need to be restrictive in your variations and in your lines. You have to bowl a bit slower through the air, you must get the loop going. That is what I did in 2003-04 – I bowled a lot slower, and I also used the googly a lot more. The googly spun more than the legbreak. In 1999-2000, I didn’t employ the googly much, and the pitches were a bit different too. I remember when we played in Sydney in a four-day game against New South Wales, it was a fantastic turning track from day three, with the ball turning and bouncing. But by the time we came back for the Test, the ball was seaming around liberally and even Warney (Shane Warne) struggled to get a wicket.”

Kumble identifies patience

as a key virtue for a spinner in Australia. “You must have a lot of patience, you need to keep plugging away. But that doesn’t mean you must be defensive in your mindset,” says the legspinner with the attitude of a tearaway. “You don’t necessarily have to have catchers around the bat, but you have to be smart in your field placements – you need to have men in different positions for different batsmen, depending on what their hitting areas are.”

The bounce, Kumble says, will

require the quicker bowlers in particular to adjust rapidly. “You need to pitch it up a bit more than you would in India. Sometimes, fast bowlers from the subcontinent tend to get carried away with the bounce. It is essential to have straight fields, to pitch the ball up and bowl the right lines, which will make the batsman play across rather than straight. If you give

the batsman any room, then the bounce facilitates scoring shots off back foot. Because our attack has a bit of pace now, we are also in the position of being able to keep batsmen honest.”

Many cricketers have spoken of

the need to adjust lengths when playing in Australia. Kumble throws light on what the ideal length should be. “For me, the right length was hitting the knee roll of the batsman,” he says. “On some pitches you had to bowl up, on some others you had to bowl slightly shorter. The right length is a relative phrase, it depends on the nature of the pitch and the height of the batsman. The whole idea is to make the batsman come forward. On a bouncy track, the batsman has time to play off the back foot, and for a spinner, there is not much turn unless a rough is created by the faster bowlers. But when the rough does appear, it is fairly pronounced. (R) Ashwin will have an advantage because Australia have Mitchell Johnson’s left-arm over resource, which will create an ideal rough for Ashwin’s offspin to thrive on. I hope he has been training in such a way that his target is the rough. But like I said earlier, the right length is to

In India, you can get away with two batsmen making big hundreds and two bowlers taking five-fors. In Australia, all 11 have to contribute


15

hit the knee roll of the batsman – that will keep leg before in the picture and open up other modes of dismissal.

“Also, as a captain, you need

to be careful with the fields you set. You need to be realistic with the scores you have. In Australia, there is a temptation to keep the slips for that much longer but more often than not, a lot of runs will come through third man and point. The smart thing will be to have the third man in place fairly early. You have to be smart about how to control the game because in Australia, you can’t let it drift. Runs come very quickly, the game can go away from you in one session. It is a tight balance between attacking and being practical – as a captain, you need to keep that in mind.”

Kumble believes there is no

one single reason to explain away India’s lack of series wins in Australia. “The closest we came was in 2003-04, but we didn’t manage our resources on the last day in Sydney, otherwise it would have been a good victory,” he says, the disappointment still tangible.

“A lot of doing well in Australia

revolves around the mindset

– you must be aggressive and

smart at the same time,” he

says. “People keep reminding

you from the time you land in

Australia that we have never

won a Test series there, it can

be quite an intimidating place

for a youngster to travel. You

need a strong mind and you

need to play to your strengths.

Preparation is the key, you need

to be serious with the side games,

you can’t fool around. And you

need to challenge yourself and

outperform your counterpart in

PROLIFIC In 15 Tests, VVS

Laxman made 1236 runs,

inclusive of four centuries.

For a spinner, there is not much turn unless a rough is created by the faster bowlers. Ashwin will have an advantage because Australia have Mitchell Johnson’s left-arm over resource, which will create an ideal rough for Ashwin’s offspin to thrive on. I hope he has been training in such a way that his target is the rough


the opposition – every one of the

11 players must look at it that

way. In India, you can get away

with two batsmen making big

hundreds and two bowlers taking

five-fors. In Australia, all 11 have

to contribute.”

“Australian pitches are best to bat on”

VVS Laxman began and

ended his stint in Australia

disappointingly, but for nine

Tests between 2000 and 2008,

he wowed the partisan Aussie

fans with his unique brand of

batsmanship. Those nine Tests

brought him 1027 runs at an

astonishing 68.47 and included

four hundreds and three fifties.

Cold numbers that don’t do justice

to his wonderful touch and timing

that didn’t fail to move the hard-

nosed Aussie players themselves.

Laxman’s Test career received

a massive fillip with his counter-

attacking 167 at the SCG on his

maiden tour to Australia in 1999-

2000, a tour he says helped him

figure out what his approach Down

Under should be. “The mindset is the key to doing well in Australia,” says Laxman. “It is important not to be over-defensive, that is something I learnt from the 1999 tour. You should look to play positively instead of just trying to focus on survival. By positive, I don’t mean go in there and start playing all your strokes, but it is essential that you look to score runs. I suppose it applies to batting anywhere, but particularly in Australia, if you go into a shell and are not looking to score, then the Australian bowlers know how to always stay on top of you.

“It is important to be aggressive from a mindset perspective, if not necessarily in your stroke-making. And if that aggressive mindset doesn’t come naturally to you, then you have to make a conscious effort to embrace that method, you need to keep talking to yourself. There will be stages when the opposition will be on top, but you still have to remain positive. There is no point in doubting your skills or your ability to play on those kinds of pitches. You must back your skills and believe in yourself. Once that belief becomes ingrained in your system, things will change drastically. I have

SUCCESS STORY You should look to play positively in Australia, says VVS Laxman


17

always maintained that the pitches in Australia are the best to bat on. That was reinforced by my hundred in Sydney in 2000, and it led to the positivity I carried with me when we travelled there in 2003. I was desperate to do well, and I was determined never to doubt myself.”

Best pitches in the world for

batting? Australia? “Yes,” insists Laxman, banking on his wonderful record there to make his point. “You can trust the bounce and the pace on those surfaces, I have always enjoyed batting in Australia. Once you get your eye in, once you get through the testing early phase, I feel more shots can be played on those pitches than anywhere else in the world. Also, the outfields are very fast, so you always get value for your shots.”

He adds: “Obviously, the critical period is when you are up against the new ball – be it the first new ball or the second. The first 15 overs with either new ball is crucial; you must work your methods out to counter that phase, and once you get through that period, there are plenty of runs to be had. The new ball encourages swing and bounce, the openers will have to negotiate it carefully and set the base for the batsmen to follow. Just as bowlers need to figure out what lengths they must employ in Australia, it is imperative for the batsmen to adjust their approach on the basis of the lengths that the Australian bowlers are bowling.”

The Australian length has

been a huge talking point in the lead-up to the series, and Laxman elaborates on that subject. “It is all about understanding and recognising that for the length that the Australians bowl on their pitches, you don’t always have to play the ball,” he explains. “Because the bounce in India is lower, you must

India have never won a series in Australia. Only 17 batsmen have scored hundreds and 14 bowlers have taken five wickets in an innings there. The 0-4 whitewash in 2011-12 was their third in ten tours to Australia; the previous ones were in 1967-68 (0-4) and 1999-00 (0-3).

COVERDRIVE

It was a tour without a single win

for India. The visitors struggled

right from the first-class matches,

losing twice, and drawing with

Victoria, Tasmania and New

South Wales. Injuries haunted

the Indians – MAK Pataudi, the

captain, carried a hamstring injury

into the third test in Melbourne,

but ended up scoring 75 and 85. BS

Chandrasekhar injured his ankle,

and was sent back home. ML

Jaisimha, who replaced him in the

second Test, took India to within

39 runs of the target with a gritty

century in the second innings of

that match. Erapalli Prasanna had

a great outing, but got too little

support from the bowlers and

fielders. – Himanish Bhattacharjee

Most runs: Bob Cowper – 485 runs

at 69.28 (Australia); Rusi Surti –

367 runs at 45.87 (India)

Most wickets: Erapalli Prasanna

– 25 wickets at 27.44 (India); Bob

Simpson – 13 wickets at 16.38

(Australia)

TOUR HISTORY



play balls bowled at a certain length; those same deliveries bowled at the same length in Australia can be comfortably left alone because the ball will sail over the stumps. It therefore becomes critical to understand the lengths, and judge and leave the ball well alone. I can say from experience that whenever I have done well in Australia, it is because I have judged the length very early in the tour. And when I have not succeeded in judging lengths early, I haven’t made many runs there. The pitches we get during practice sessions are a fair indicator of what we will get in the match, so smart and intelligent preparation ahead of the game will play a vital part in how the batsmen quickly adjust to the conditions because several of the top-order batsmen will be playing a Test in Australia for the first time.

“Gabba (Brisbane) and Perth

are the bounciest surfaces in Australia but we aren’t playing (Tests) in Perth. Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney are fairly similar pitches bounce-wise, so that should help going

deeper into the series. But our batsmen must not lose sight of the fact that whether they are playing their strokes or whether they are leaving the ball on bounce, they must always remain positive and decisive.”

Laxman has a straightforward

formula for winning Test matches

in Australia: “First-innings runs.”

“Whenever we have won in

Australia during my time, be it

Adelaide in 2003, Perth in 2008,

we have made runs in the first

innings. If you are dismissed

cheaply in the first innings, you

are always playing catch-up, and

that is not easy to do in Australia

because the game moves so

rapidly all the time. But if you can

put up say 400 in the first innings,

then you give yourself a great

chance to put pressure on the

Australians, and I believe with the

infusion of pace in our attack, we

have the bowlers who can take 20

wickets if they can bowl with runs

in the bank. The Adelaide and

Perth wins came about because

the bowlers had the luxury of

attacking with plenty of runs, and

we nearly won in Sydney in 2004

as well because we had a big first-

innings total.”

India’s third tour of Australia

brought their first Test win there.

A series of close finishes, thrilling

contests and positive play ended

3-2 in the hosts’ favour. This after

Australia hastily assembled a

young team, led by Bob Simpson,

who at 41 came out of a ten-

year retirement, to make up for

the players the team lost to the

new World Series Cricket. Sunil

Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath

and Mohinder Amarnath played

vital knocks, but it was Bishan

Singh Bedi and BS Chandrasekhar

who scripted India’s wins to draw

level after they were two down.

Both bowlers had three five-

wicket hauls and one ten-wicket

match-haul apiece. However, India

missed a genuine pace bowler and

couldn’t press for a series win.

– Kritika Naidu

Most runs: Bob Simpson – 539 runs

at 53.90 (Australia); Gundappa

Viswanath – 473 runs at 52.55

(India)

Most wickets: Bishan Singh Bedi

– 31 wickets at 23.87 (India);

Wayne Clark – 28 wickets at 25.03

(Australia)

TOUR HISTORY



19

DASH OF SPICEIndia’s tours of Australia have resulted in a fair few controversies, raised hackles and he-said-Sachin-said. But here’s what really happenedSAURABH SOMANI

CONTROVERSIES

*The events described below bear only a passing resemblance to cricketing history. Any fact not twisted beyond recognition is deeply regretted.

Little children may be made of sugar and spice and everything nice, but tours to Australia –

whether little or not, often with enough room for childishness and churlishness – tend to drop the ‘sugar’ and ‘everything nice’ bits. Fair warning to aspiring Australia cricket-tourists: You’re going to feel hot under the collar, have a burning sensation running down your throat to where your stomach ought to have been, and you’ll break out in a sweat. And

that could be just from reading the day’s headlines.

You think of India in Australia and controversy, and if you’ve followed cricket in 2008, the only image that comes to mind is of Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh exchanging addresses for Christmas cards – or at least that’s what you’ll be telling your


children when they try to lip-read.

But right from Vinoo Mankad knocking off a bail gently in 1947-48 to Virat Kohli, the captain for at least the first Test this time around, demonstrating to the Sydney crowd which finger he would raise if he had to declare them out, there’s been a lack of ice and an overdose of spice when India have visited Australia. What follows is a history – of sorts – of some of the major talking points.

The term ‘Mankading’ came about in Australia in 1947-48 because Bill Brown, who either played off the backfoot a lot or didn’t like to take his car out, was shaken out of his reverie by a well-meaning but irascible fan who yelled, “Make At least Ninety, Knob. And Drive.” Brown became

alive to the fact that he was being called but lost sight of the fact that he shouldn’t have left his non-striker’s crease to try and have a

word with the gentleman on the fine-leg fence.

As he started out to confront

him, the bowler – not knowing that Brown wasn’t intending to steal a single – took off the bails and Brown was ruled out. The

initials of what the fan had called out spelled ‘Mankad’ and by a most unfortunate coincidence, that was the bowler’s name too. Thus has Vinoo Mankad been unfairly branded as the man who gave the name to one of cricket’s more ignoble dismissals, instead of the man in the stands who shouted out the message. All of which is verifiable in any edition of the Wisden India Almanack from 1948.

The Wisden India Almanack, all of (-)31 years old in 1981 and eagerly counting down the decades to its existence, also has a lot to say about

the February 1981 match in Melbourne, and the fact that it was a pointer to a decision Sachin Tendulkar received in 1999.


21

While on the surface, the link between the two could be that both Indian little masters of their generations were at the receiving end of contentious decisions from Australia’s pace spearhead of the time, it went deeper than that. In 1981, Dennis Lillee appealed successfully for a leg before decision against Sunil Gavaskar, and in 1999, Glenn McGrath did the same against Tendulkar.

But if you watch the 1981 video, you will see that a) Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan are discussing lunch plans, having suddenly realised that their favourite restaurant in Melbourne will close in 15 minutes; b) Dennis Lillee

is pointing out that the bounce on Australian pitches is low – foreshadowing the Tendulkar lbw; and c) You need to watch the video on mute to draw these conclusions.

Revisionist versions will tell

you that Gavaskar was merely

incensed by what he saw as a

wrong lbw decision that came in a

series where India had reportedly

copped more than their share of

wrong ’uns, and in a moment of

anger decided to drag his partner

off the pitch in protest too. But

that doesn’t account for the menu

reportedly found in the dressing

room with a seafood restaurant

circled, and neat handwriting –

the sort that could belong to a

man capable of scoring 10,000

Test runs – specifying that it served “the best prawn curry I’ve ever had”.

In 1999, Tendulkar ducked into what he thought was a McGrath bouncer, but the ball just hit his shoulder, and when appealed against, Tendulkar was also given out lbw. No doubt the umpire had Lillee’s gesturing of the bounce from 1981 in mind, and thought the ball would crash into the stumps. It did give the mandarins in charge of making laws a headache though, because they realised too late that they hadn’t really thought about it while calling the dismissal ‘leg before wicket’. Fledgling Grammar Nazis took to a fledgling internet with glee in India – waiting for

But that doesn’t account for the menu reportedly found in the dressing room with a seafood restaurant circled, and neat handwriting – the sort that could be of a man capable of scoring 10,000 Test runs – specifying that it served “the best prawn curry I’ve ever had”

SHOULDER BEFORE WICKET “That is when Tendulkar added the uppercut to his repertoire.”


five minutes for their dial-up connections to buzz, crackle, fail to connect, redial and log on – to litter online message boards with “Oh I didn’t know shoulder before wicket was also a new dismissal”, discovering only after hitting publish that roughly 1,048,576 people had thought of the same joke. It led to frenzied activity in the ICC headquarters, with officials printing reams of copy for the new laws that allowed ‘shoulder before the wicket’, ‘arm before the wicket’, ‘thigh before the wicket’, ‘Tendulkar with Steve Bucknor before the wicket’ and the like – until Tendulkar calmed them down by promising to never duck when the ball was pitched short. That is when he added the uppercut to his repertoire.

The mother of all controversies though – or maa ki controversy as it’s called – occurred in 2008. An authoritative source, who chose to remain both anonymous and fictional, said that miscommunication was the root cause of the incident. It began with Andrew Symonds generously offering

advice to Harbhajan on what he should do with himself and ways he could gain pleasure, while pointing out helpful tips from How to win friends and influence people. Touched by the gesture, Harbhajan immediately thought of Symonds as family, and solicitously inquired after his mother’s well-being. What started as a friendly dialogue turned nasty when, in an unguarded moment, Harbhajan let slip that he didn’t really like Masterchef. A shocked Matthew Hayden, who hadn’t conceived of anyone not liking a cooking show and had heard the tailend of the conversation, told him, “You’ve got a witness now”. The subsequently ugly altercations made Harbhajan resolve to settle future disagreements on the field itself – with a slap or two if need be. No more Kangaroo Court business.

Things have cooled noticeably since the heat of the 2007-08 series, but it’s still India versus Australia, and they aren’t writing love notes to each other on the field yet. There’s a good chance that the current series will throw up its own dash of spice – the essential ingredient when cooking up an alternative history.

India lost the opening Test

in Sydney in three days after

being overwhelmed by Greg

Chappell’s classic 204 and the fast

bowling of Dennis Lillee and Len

Pascoe. Despite Sandeep Patil’s

memorable 174, India were on

the brink of defeat in the second

Test in Adelaide but managed to

salvage a draw. They then rose

above the handicap of having

three injured bowlers to win the

final Test in Melbourne by 59 runs.

Sunil Gavaskar’s one Test innings

of substance, the 70 at Melbourne,

ended in an anti-climax. Given

out lbw to Lillee, an enraged

Gavaskar wanted to forfeit the

match, ordering Chetan Chauhan,

his batting partner, to walk off

with him. Wing-Commander

Durrani, the Indian team manager,

intervened before Gavaskar left

the playing arena and the series

went on. – Disha Shetty

Most runs: Greg Chappell – 368

runs at 73.60 (Australia); Sandeep

Patil – 311 runs at 62.20 (India)

Most wickets: Dennis Lillee – 21

wickets at 21.52 (Australia); Kapil

Dev – 14 wickets at 23.78

TOUR HISTORY

1980–81 (3): AUSTRALIA 1 INDIA 1


23

WHERE THE BANTER STARTS EARLYThe vast majority in Australia appreciates a keen contest. But when the visitors are hapless, the contempt – both from the stands and the media boxes – can be withering

DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN

REPORTER’S NOTES

So, you’ve come to see a 4-0 whitewash, have you? Will your guys be as bad as they were last time?

When you arrive in Australia, the sledging can start as early as the immigration desk. As soon as the officer perusing my passport knew what the purpose of my visit was, the friendly jibes started.

Jetlagged and disoriented, I didn’t even respond.

It was to be a recurring theme

wherever we went on that 2003-04 tour. Once India won in Adelaide, however, the banter became a little more respectful, a little less dismissive. It was a far cry from the opening morning at the Gabba, when I made the

mistake of wearing my media accreditation card on the bus ride to the ground. “Come all this way to follow a losing team, have you?” asked one bloke, kitted out in a Castlemaine XXXX shirt. “What does it feel like to lose a World Cup final?”

I couldn’t let that half-volley

pass. Just a fortnight earlier, Jonny


AN EXPERIENCE The crowd in Australia is partisan and raucous.


25

Wilkinson’s boot had kicked England to rugby World Cup glory against the Wallabies. On their turf. “Ask your rugby team,” I said with a smile. Queensland takes its rugby pretty seriously, and I got only a grimace in response.

By and large, the humour inside

and outside the grounds is fun. There will be the odd drunken boors with their “Coolie” shouts, but the vast majority appreciates a keen contest. In both 2003-04 and 2007-08, they got that. But when the visitors are hapless, as India were three years ago, the contempt – both from the stands and the media boxes – can be withering.

For a journalist, there are few

better tours though. Because you’re so far east of the Greenwich Meridian, time is on your side. If you work for a print publication in the UK, South Africa or South East

Asia, you can afford to take your time with any feature you need to write once the match report has been sent. Let the words marinate over dinner and possibly even a cider or pale ale before you send them in.

And unless there’s a Monkeygate

going on, it’s also perfectly possible to switch off once you leave the ground. Australia loves its cricket, but doesn’t obsess over it. The unhealthy voyeurism that has become such an integral part of the TV news experience in India is seldom in evidence. It’s pretty normal to see players having dinner at a restaurant rather than hiding away in their rooms dependent on room service.

There’s also plenty to do away

from the cricket. The Gold Coast is a short drive from Brisbane – or Bris Vegas as some disparagingly call it. If your tastes run to quieter beaches without ugly constructions overlooking them, then you’re better off checking out the many beaches on the Great Ocean Road that takes you from Melbourne to Adelaide.

The more adventurous can try

to climb the Harbour Bridge in

Sydney, or check out any number of adventure sports at scenic locations like the Twelve Apostles. Nature lovers should definitely experience Kangaroo Island, south of Adelaide. As large as Malabar, it has a population of roughly 5000, and boasts of everything from koalas and kangaroos to fairy penguins and seals. The thirsty ones will find much to explore in the vineyards around Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, while a trip into the Dandenongs near Melbourne is incomplete without a ride on the Puffing Billy heritage railway.

The in-stadium experience

is also unmatched. There are beautiful grounds in England and

For a journalist, there are few better tours than the one to Australia though. Because you’re so far east of the Greenwich Meridian, time is on your side. Let the words marinate over dinner and possibly a cider or pale ale before you send them in

India’s 445 in fourth Innings of the fifth Test in 1977-78 during their unsuccessful chase of 493 is the second highest total in a losing cause in Test history.

COVERDRIVE


South Africa, but nothing that

gives you the Coliseum feel of the

Melbourne Cricket Ground. From

the top of the Great Southern

Stand, the players look little

bigger than ants.

As for the Sydney Cricket

Ground, no trip is complete

without silent contemplation of

the feats of Trumper, Bradman,

Tendulkar and Laxman. Adelaide,

with the scenic walk across the

bridge from town, was the most

English of the Australian grounds

before its expensive makeover.

For a visiting player, fan or

journalist, these can also be intimidating venues. So successful have Australia been at the Gabba in the past quarter-century that many now refer to it as the Gabbatoir. The crowd is partisan

and raucous, though a virtuoso display like Sourav Ganguly’s century in 2003 can bring them – grudgingly or not – to their feet.

The light is marvellous, as is the

variety of food on offer. The cities

are easy to get around, and there

are few experiences in sport that

can compare to the MCG on Boxing

Day. It’s a lot more fun when the

series is well contested though.

If the team you’re there to report

on struggle, then be prepared for

endless banter. Starting with the

arrival desk.

MANY BENAUDS By and large, the humour inside and outside the grounds is fun.

SK Gurunathan, who covered more than 50 Test matches including the 1947-48 series in Australia, founded the Indian Cricket Annual in 1946, which was inspired by the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack

COVERDRIVE


27

SPARKS OF GLORYDuring the hunt for that elusive series victory have come some classic individual performances

MANOJ NARAYAN

THE CLASSICS

Australia may be a citadel Indian cricketers have generally struggled to

breach, but there are a few extraordinary individuals who have etched their names in cricket folklore for their heroic attempts at doing so. After much deliberation, Wisden India has

narrowed down to six the top series performances by Indians in Australia.

Bishan Singh Bedi and BS

Chandrasekhar, 1977-78

This tour was by far India’s

most successful in Australia till

that point, and that had a lot to

do with the spin duo of Bishan

Singh Bedi and BS Chandrasekhar. Bedi ended the series as the highest wicket-taker – 31 wickets at 23.87 in five matches – while Chandrasekhar followed close behind with 28 wickets at 25.14 in the same number of games. Each had three five-wicket hauls and one ten-wicket match-haul apiece.

Bedi hit the ground running.


His five-wicket haul in the first Test in Brisbane helped bowl out Australia for just 166 in the first innings, although India were themselves felled for 153 in their reply. Australia went on to win the Test by 16 runs after they amassed 327 in the second innings, with Bedi going wicketless and Chandrasekhar returning 2 for 82. In the second Test in Perth, Bedi, in his element, ended with his first ten-wicket haul in Tests, returning 5 for 89 and 5 for 105. His spells were crucial in making the contest another close encounter. Australia eventually kept their nerve to win by two wickets.

Chandrasekhar hit form in

the third Test in Melbourne, which India won by 222 runs – their first win in 12 Tests in Australia. He “bowled accurately and with devastating fire to hasten India towards victory”, reported the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, to return identical figures of 6 for 52 in each innings. Australia were bowled out for 213 and 164, Chandrasekhar and Bedi taking all ten wickets in the second innings.

They then combined to take seven in the fourth Test in Sydney – Chandrasekhar picking up 4 for 30, Bedi 3 for 49 – in the first innings as Australia were bowled out for 131. Australia floundered again in their second hit, Erapalli Prasanna returning 4 for 51 to seal an innings-and-two-run victory. However, in the final Test in Adelaide, Australia put up a huge first-innings score of 505, despite Chandrasekhar’s 5 for 136. India were bowled out for 256, and though Bedi got 4 for 53, Australia registered a 47-run victory for a 3-2 series win.

Sandeep Patil, Adelaide,

1980-81

India were taken apart in the first Test in Sydney. They were twice bowled out for 201, as Australia won by an innings and four runs within three days. Things didn’t start off too well in the next Test in Adelaide either, where India chose to field and watched as Kim Hughes dominated the bowling with a 301-ball 213. It came on the back of Graeme Wood’s century, as Australia posted a massive 528. Another big loss seemed on the cards when India were reduced to

This tour didn’t prove to be

as fruitful as Kapil Dev’s side

expected, with all three Tests

ending in a draw. The Indians

were eager to bounce back from

a disappointing tour to Sri Lanka,

and the batsmen scored heavily.

They were led by Sunil Gavaskar,

who amassed 352 runs, hitting

two centuries along the way. For

Australia, David Boon and Allan

Border had reasonable success.

Though Kapil came up with an

inspired spell in the first innings of

the first Test, picking up 8 for 106,

India’s bowling at times failed to

capitalise on positions of strength.

– Akash Sarkar

Most runs: Sunil Gavaskar – 352

runs at 117.33 (India); David Boon –

323 runs at 64.60 (Australia)

Most wickets: Shivlal Yadav – 15

wickets at 22.26 (India); Bruce Reid

– 11 wickets at 29.54 (Australia)

TOUR HISTORY



29

130 for 4. But they then found a hero of their own in Sandeep Patil, whose 65 in the first Test before he retired hurt was one of the few positives. Handed a let off when he was on just 2, Patil went on to rival Hughes’s knock, hitting an equally belligerent 240-ball 174, which helped India reach 419, and eventually, draw the match. More importantly, it showed India had the fight in them. It was the turning point of the match and, possibly, the series, as they won the next Test in Melbourne to level the three-match affair 1-1.

Gundappa Viswanath and

Kapil Dev, Melbourne,

1980-81

It was a match that India almost

walked away from. Sunil Gavaskar,

the captain, was so irked by Rex

Whitehead’s decision to give him

out lbw to Dennis Lillee in the

second innings of the third Test

that he walked off, taking his

batting partner Chetan Chauhan

with him. Thankfully, the match

went on, and it meant a fabulous

first-innings century from

Gundappa Viswanath didn’t go in

vain. The world also witnessed

something special from Kapil Dev on the final day.

Put in, India were tottering at 22 for 2 when Viswanath walked in. By the time he walked back, the ninth man out four and a half hours later, he had scored a fine 114. He was the only constant in the Indian innings that resulted in 237 runs from 84 overs.

Australia responded strongly,

putting on 419. India ended their second innings at a fighting 324, despite the distraction of Gavaskar’s dismissal. Australia needed just 143 to win, but the match turned on its head on the fifth morning. Kapil Dev – struggling with a thigh muscle

strain that forced him to use a runner the previous day – remarkably returned 5 for 28 to seal a famous 59-run victory. Bruce Yardley was bowled, Allan Border was caught behind and the tail comprising Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Jim Higgs was wiped out. “(He) bowled straight and to a length and let the pitch do the rest,” said the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. It was brave, it was heroic. And victory was especially sweet for Gavaskar.

VVS Laxman, Sydney,

1999-2000

Australia had completely outplayed India in the first two Tests in Adelaide and Melbourne,

ADELAIDE,2003 Rahul Dravid’s double-century

gave India their first win in Australia

since 1981.


and India were visibly deflated

ahead of the third Test in Sydney.

And there was no let up for them,

as India were bowled out for 150.

The Australian batsmen then

feasted on the bowlers, with Justin

Langer hitting a double-century,

backed by a mesmeric unbeaten

century from Ponting. Australia

eventually declared their innings

at 552 for 5, and India’s misery

plummeted further on being

reduced to 33 for 3. One can well imagine the

mentality of a team on the verge of being knocked out cold. But then, VVS Laxman came up with

one of those defiant knocks he

would make a habit of later in

his career. He was aggressive and

graceful all at once. He took a blow

to his visor early on, but played

his shots unfazed – the drive,

the cut and the pull. Brett Lee,

Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath

were left frustrated, and even

part-timers Ricky Ponting and

Michael Slater had a go. Laxman

put on 68 with Sourav Ganguly, 49

with Hrishikesh Kanitkar and 89

with Anil Kumble. He eventually

ended with a 198-ball 167 – his

maiden Test century – including

27 majestic fours. If nothing else,

it was evidence of fight.

Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman

and Ajit Agarkar, Adelaide

2003-04

Australia had scored a massive 556 by the second afternoon of the second Test, Ricky Ponting with a 352-ball 242, and India were reeling at 85 for 4 in their reply. Enter Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. During their 376-run stand in Kolkata, it was Laxman playing the lead and Dravid providing able support. This time, the roles were reversed. Dravid’s cover drives were at their immaculate best and it was a shot he used repeatedly to good effect. At the other end, Laxman’s cuts and flicks ensured runs from both sides of the wicket.

The two batted 93.5 overs and their fifth-wicket association added 303 runs. The stand was broken when Laxman was sent back at the stroke of tea on the third day, but Dravid carried on, adding 135 with the tail. He was the last man dismissed, having scored 233. Australia’s lead was just 33.

Then, it was the bowlers’ turn

to capitalise, and Ajit Agarkar

PERTH, 2008 All-round contribution from Irfan Pathan.


31

did just that. He swung it both ways, and Australia were greatly troubled. Justin Langer was his first victim, an inswinger trapping him plumb in front. He then had the dangerous Ricky Ponting holing out. The Australians slid as they tried attacking, and Agarkar returned later on, reversing the ball to add the scalps of Simon Katich, Andy Bichel, Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill and return a magnificent 6 for 41. India needed 230 to win, and Dravid, fittingly, scored the winning runs, ending with an unbeaten 72. It was India’s first victory on Australian soil since Melbourne 1981.

Irfan Pathan, Perth,

2007-08

If you didn’t watch the match, you would wonder what was special about Irfan Pathan’s contribution to India’s 72-run victory in the third Test. Pathan scored 28 and 46, and took 2 for 63 and 3 for 54. Not remarkable. But closer scrutiny would explain why he was Man of the Match.

Pathan returned to the playing

XI after nearly a year and his first contribution was a lead role in the

44-run stand with Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the seventh wicket, which built on Rahul Dravid’s (93) and Sachin Tendulkar’s (71) to take India to 330. Then, he accounted for both Australian openers, reducing them to 13 for 2 while swinging the ball with immense control. It started an Australian slide that had them bowled out for 212.

In the second innings,

Pathan came in at No. 3 as nightwatchman after Wasim Jaffer fell late in the day. He batted with the assuredness of a regular top-order batsman and was the sixth man out, a 64-ball 46 to his name – the second-highest score of the innings after Laxman’s fine 79.

Then, with Australia chasing 413 for victory, he again got the openers out and, later in the day, Stuart Clark to complete a match haul of five wickets. It was a fine all-round performance that also prevented Ricky Ponting’s Australia from extending their record to a 17th consecutive Test win.

This was the first series to be

played under the ICC‘s new code

of conduct, along with restrictions

on short-pitched bowling.

Although Australia beat India 4-0

comprehensively, the visitors

found some positives, not least in

Sachin Tendulkar’s match-defining

centuries in Sydney (148 not out)

and Perth (114). Kapil Dev had his

most successful series on foreign

soil and made his way to 400 Test

wickets, the second in the world

to achieve the feat at the time.

Also, India discovered a prospect

in Javagal Srinath. For the hosts,

while Mark Taylor stocked runs,

David Boon was the bulwark of

the batting, scoring centuries

in each of the last three Tests.

Craig McDermott picked up three

five-wicket hauls, his 31 wickets

an Australian record in a series

against India. – Kritika Naidu

Most runs: David Boon – 556

runs at 79.42 (Australia); Sachin

Tendulkar – 368 runs at 46 (India)

Most wickets: Craig McDermott –

31 wickets at 21.61 (Australia); Kapil

Dev – 25 wickets at 25.80 (India)

TOUR HISTORY



Sanjay Bangar, one of two assistant coaches of the Indian team, said the other day: “We may probably

have the best seam attack going to Australia for a number of years now.”

The men in that attack: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh

Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron and Mohammed Shami. On paper, Bangar has it right – Yadav and Shami bowl at over 140kmph consistently, Aaron hits the 150s even if he is occasionally wayward, Ishant is the beanpole who gets steep bounce and the sort of movement Australian pitches are good for, and Bhuvneshwar, though slow of pace, is among the

best swing bowlers India have had in a while.

However, even putting aside the shortcomings of some of these pacers – injury-prone, inconsistent, etc. – two of them have never played cricket in Australia as part of the national team, and another one has travelled with the team but did

SHAMYA DASGUPTA

DEBUTANTS

INITIATION BY PACE AND BOUNCEIt’s an inexperienced Indian side that is travelling to Australia, but the first-timers could well be the ones best equipped to grapple with the conditions Down Under


33

not get to play. Of the other two, Yadav, part of the 2011-12 touring party that lost the four-Test series 4-0 – picking up quite a few wickets and conceding a whole lot of runs – has played nine Test matches. Ishant is the only one with any serious experience of playing Test cricket in Australia, having been a part of two tours. His overall career record is pretty unimpressive, considering the 58 matches he has played, but the way he had one over Ricky Ponting in that 2007-08 tour is legend – probably the biggest tick mark in his career. The others, Shami, Bhuvneshwar and Aaron, have a total experience of 23 Tests.

That inexperience isn’t restricted to the pace attack. Among the batsmen, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara have never toured Australia as part of the national team before. Ajinkya Rahane has, but he didn’t play a game. Naman Ojha, picked only for the first Test (which was ultimately rescheduled) as back-up wicketkeeper to Wriddhiman Saha, who will become back-up to MS Dhoni once he is fit and ready for action, has only been there as part of the India A squad, as has

Karn Sharma. Nor has Ravindra Jadeja toured there with the national team. It’s a big, bulky squad – 19 people including Ojha – and the inexperience is glaring.

Importantly, three of the first-

timers are almost certain to make

the batting line-up in the playing XI,

at least for the first Test – Dhawan

and Vijay at the top, and Pujara at,

most likely, No. 3. Depending on

fitness, form and the conditions

in Adelaide, one or two of Shami,

Aaron and Bhuvneshwar could

well accompany Ishant and Yadav

in the bowling attack. That’s four,

if not five players that will play

international cricket for the first

time in Australia and, needless to

say, it won’t be easy.

In Australia, like in South Africa, even though the nature of the pitches has changed somewhat over the years, places like Brisbane and Perth are certain to offer a lot more pace and bounce than one would expect elsewhere. For the batsmen, it’s about coping with that pace and bounce, and for fast bowlers, the trick is to not be too macho with the red cherry in hand.

The Indian pitch that comes closest to that is Mohali – not quite Gabba, of course. That is where Dhawan started his Test career, playing against Australia. On that occasion, in March 2013, Dhawan scored 187 runs from 174 balls in just over four hours in the middle. The sort of innings that makes a star of a debutant. Since then, it’s not always gone right but when it has, Dhawan has been fantastic to watch: aggressive but not in the Virender Sehwag over-the-top way, in control, superb on the offside, hitting through the line. In that debut Test, however, there was no Mitchell Johnson in the opposition. Over the past couple of seasons, Johnson has easily been the most exciting cricketer going and for all the numbers anyone might have totted up,

Such inexperience on a Test tour of Australia is far from ideal. But, then again, the last time India went to Australia, they came back 4-0 losers – in spite of a batting order boasting Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman


negotiating Johnson, at Gabba, is a whole different ball game. Can Dhawan do it? True, he couldn’t quite cut it in England, where faster bowlers get more movement off the air than in most parts of the world. But going by what we have seen of his game over the years, the conditions in Australia might just be more to Dhawan’s liking.

More than Dhawan, his opening partner and the man likely to walk in at one-drop, Vijay and Pujara, are probably best placed to counter the pace and bounce.

When Dhawan was breaking records with that debut century of his, Vijay was going about quietly accumulating runs. He ended with 153 of his own, coming on the back of a 167 in the previous Test. But the Vijay that turned up in South Africa later in the year was a revelation. He scored six runs in over an hour and 39 in two-and-a-half hours in the first Test in Johannesburg and then 97 in over five hours before failing in the second innings in Durban. This Vijay

wanted to stay in the middle for as long as he could – he valued his wicket over all else. And he’s continued in that vein. He could well be key to India’s performance on this tour.

As for Pujara, while he isn’t quite Rahul Dravid (yet), he is as close to being a wall-like figure as Indian cricket has now. A Test man through and through, his average has dipped below 50 after disappointing tours of New Zealand and England earlier this year: 282 runs in seven Tests. But Pujara will be a central figure in the next few years of Indian Test cricket. If Puj, along with Vijay and Virat Kohli, can find his mojo in Australia, there could be surprises in store.

* Of the 282 Indian Test players 16 have made their debut in Australia, ten of whom were medium pace bowlers.

* Kiran More toured West Indies in 83 and Australia in 85 as an understudy to Syed Kirmani, and made his debut in the World Series Cup when Kirmani got injured.

COVERDRIVE

India‘s batsmen struggled to adapt to the conditions and 285 was the highest they managed across six innings. The lack of a solid opening partnership cost the team. In Devang Gandhi’s absence, following the first Test, VVS Laxman moved to open the innings with Sadagoppan Ramesh, but that had little effect. Already strong on the bowling front, with Glenn McGrath and Damien Fleming in prime form, Australia‘s decision to hand Brett Lee his debut in the second Test proved to be a masterstroke as India were undone by his raw pace and he finished with 13 wickets from two matches. Tendulkar’s 278 runs earned him the Man of the Series award, but it was Ricky Ponting’s remarkable consistency that stood out and powered Australia to a 3-0 whitewash. – Akshay Gopalakrishnan

Most runs: Ricky Ponting – 375 runs at 125 (Australia); Sachin Tendulkar – 278 runs at 46.33Most wickets: Glenn McGrath – 18 wickets at 13.77 (Australia); Ajit

Agarkar – 11 wickets at 31.90

TOUR HISTORY



35

FRESH ATTACK Bhuvneshwar

Kumar, though slow of pace, is

one of India’s best swing bowlers.


Coming to the pacemen, who would you pick among Ishant, Bhuvneshwar, Shami, Yadav and Aaron? Would you pick four pacers to go with R Ashwin at No. 7 or extend the batting order and play three pacemen with Ashwin?

Or no Ashwin, just four pacers? Tricky. One would have to assume, fitness permitting, that Ishant and Yadav will be in the starting XI for the Adelaide Test. Who else?

Bhuvneshwar is slow but has the swing and can bat a fair bit too.

Shami has the pace, the accuracy and the stamina to be a Siddle of sorts. And Aaron has the pace. Of the lot, it would be the most fascinating to see what Aaron does if he gets the chance. But, coming back from a long injury layoff,

he went and picked up a niggle in the first One-Day International against Sri Lanka recently. His fitness – whether he can last a full Test match, forget the whole series – would be a major area of concern.

As the pack is shuffled depending on conditions, it is pretty likely that all five of them will get a chance at some point during the four Tests.

That may not be the case with Rahul, Ojha, Karn or Jadeja.

Rahul has been, by far, the most exciting opening batsman in India over the past couple of seasons, and his selection for the tour of Australia was a no-brainer once Gautam Gambhir failed in England. But the distance between a spot on the bench and

one in the top of the order could be a long one for Rahul. That could change depending on how many good innings Vijay and Dhawan, especially Dhawan, can tot up in the first couple of Tests.

While Ojha and Karn would be in it mainly for the experience, Jadeja too could get a chance at some stage depending on how Ashwin goes.

Such inexperience on a Test tour of Australia is far from ideal. But, then again, the last time India went to Australia, they came back 4-0 losers – in spite of a batting order boasting Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. The expectations from this lot are markedly lower.

For the rank newcomers that do get a go, this will be a chance to make a statement. And for the experienced lot in what is largely a young side, it’s an opportunity to underscore their abilities, a chance to prove that they are the right people in this period of transition for the Indian team, that they are the ones around whom the script for the next few years of Indian Test cricket will be written.

RAW PACE Umesh Yadav can consistently bowl at over 140kph.


37

IT’S ALWAYS A LONG, TOUGH TOUR TO AUSTRALIAAustralia has a lot to offer off the field, but if you’re not playing well, three to four months in the continent can be difficultKIRAN MORE

Pakistan and India used to play each other pretty rarely those days. I think we were playing

after 1989 during that 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and you know how it is in an India-Pakistan game – even if it’s a charity match, it’s always a tense affair.

On that day in Sydney, we batted first and scored 216 (for 7, in 49 overs) and it wasn’t a bad total. The times were different. Getting a lot of boundaries and sixes was difficult those days – nowadays you have mostly 75-yard boundaries but the boundaries were much further away in Australia at the time. We would have liked 30-40 runs

more but it was all right. When Javed (Miandad) came in to bat, it was quite early (17 for 2) and I told the bowlers to bowl up to him and not give him space to hit. He got frustrated as he couldn’t score freely, they had lost early wickets anyway, and there was an appeal for a catch down the legside off Sachin’s (Tendulkar) bowling, which I thought was out. That’s

FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNT


how the chatter started. He said a few things to me and I gave it back to him. In fact, our whole team was giving it back to him.

And then that incident

happened. I appealed for a run out and Javed started jumping (in mock imitation of the appeal). So David Shepherd (the umpire) came up to him and told him that if he did it again, he would be thrown out. So it ended there.

But Javed … he has always been

a great friend. He’s a great man. I have been to his house for dinner when in Pakistan and it’s always fun playing with him. He was a tough opponent, but a great man off the field. He was competitive, which was true for all of us.

Stump mikes had also come in

around that time, and Channel 9 used them, and I used to say ‘shabaash, shabaash’ to encourage the bowlers and fielders. It was a new formula in world cricket. I used to talk earlier too, but people could hear me then. So it must have irritated Javed. Importantly, we won the match (by 43 runs).

But we are all friends after

the match is over. It’s always fun

with them (Pakistan) because we speak the same languages – Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi … sharing stories, spending time together.

One must also remember that

the World Cup came at the end of a long tour. Touring Australia is never easy anyway; it’s always tough, and it’s always a wake-up call of sorts. Of course, if you do well, the locals are very appreciative, and there’s a big Indian community there, the people always want to help you and fix Indian meals for you. But the cricket is tough. So we would go out for dinner with the teammates, there are lots of sporting activities in Australia, away in Gold Coast, which is beautiful, the beaches, long walks. In Sydney, we would go to the harbour and to the Sydney Opera House, and there’s a lot to do in Australia. But spending three-four

months there can be tough. When we were done with the World Cup, we realised what a long tour it had been. Especially if you don’t do well, that hits you more. We were in Australia for four months, we lost four of the five Tests, we did all right in the tri-series (West Indies were the third team) but the World Cup didn’t go well. So you spend your time with the same people for four months, you see the same faces in the hotel and at the ground – it can get tiring.

This time also, the Indians will

be in Australia for around four months and it’s always good to get a break for 10-15 days in the middle. We wanted it, but it couldn’t be arranged. But things are different if you do well and win a few games. If you start losing, there are always issues that crop up, on the field and off the field; things start going wrong. There are injuries too. We are taking five pacers for the Tests and they should go to the World Cup as well. So injuries are a concern. I hope we win, and everyone stays fit, because it will be a long and tough tour, as it always is when you go to Australia.

As told to Shamya Dasgupta

I appealed for a run out and Javed started jumping. So David Shepherd came up to him and told him that if he did it again, he would be thrown out. So it ended there


39

India may have won only five of the 40 Tests they have played in Australia between 1947 and 2012, but there has been no dearth of fascinating individual contests over the years – mini-battles within the five-day ones, some perhaps with a tinge of David-versus-Goliath to them. From the tussle between Vijay Hazare and Ray Lindwall to the exploits of Sachin Tendulkar, from VVS Laxman facing off against Brett Lee to Ricky Ponting’s 19-year-old nemesis in 2008, there have been some epic clashes Down Under. As India embark on their 11th Test tour there, we look back at some of them.

DUEL OF THE GREATSSIDHANTA PATNAIK


Hazare and Lindwall set the tone (1947-48)

Vijay Hazare and Ray Lindwall were both new to international cricket, but proved to be their teams’ big stars on India’s first tour to Australia. Hazare made 116 and 145 (in a second-innings total of 277) in the fourth Test at Adelaide Oval to become the first Indian to score two centuries in a Test. He spent a total of 584 minutes and played 675 balls; the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack described it as Hazare’s “personal triumph”.

His second hundred came after India were asked to follow on, and Lindwall, who finished with career-best figures of 7 for 38, did much of the damage in that second innings. Lindwall, the best bowler of the series, bowled Hazare, and then accounted for him again in the subsequent game in Melbourne. Hazare aggregated 429 runs to finish second on the run charts behind Don Bradman.

Prasanna bamboozles Redpath and Chappell (1967-68)

India lost all four Tests on their return to Australia after 20 years, but the new engineering graduate in the side, Erapalli Prasanna, gave them something to remember fondly. Prasanna, who would be the best bowler of the series with 25 scalps, troubled Ian Redpath and Ian Chappell the most. Both of them fell to him thrice each in just over a month. In the first Test in Adelaide, Redpath failed to open his account in the first innings. Chappell could score only two before he became Prasanna’s second victim. Prasanna’s best came in a closely fought Brisbane Test, the third one of the series, where he picked up eight wickets in the match, including Redpath twice and Chappell once. Prasanna dismissed both of them six times apiece over the years. Chappell, even now, regards Prasanna as the toughest spinner he faced.

Simpson counters Indian spinners (1977-78)

Played against the backdrop

of Kerry Packer’s World Series

Cricket, a weakened Australian

team fielded 12 debutants in five

Tests, and recalled Bob Simpson,

ten years after retirement, to captain at the age of 41. He proved to be the decisive thorn in India’s flesh. Though he was dismissed thrice by BS Chandrasekhar, and fell to Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan once each during the series, his experience came in handy when it came to negating the quartet’s threat. He was on top of the batting charts and helped Australia win a tightly fought series 3-2. Nowhere was

his nous best displayed than in the

two-wicket win in the Perth Test

where he guided his team from 65

for 3 to 394 with a patient 176.

Sandeep Patil settles scores with Pascoe (1980-81)

Sandeep Patil started his first overseas Test match with a 65


41

against Australia in Sydney, before he was hit on the head by Len Pascoe and forced to retire hurt. He, however, responded with a fiery 174 in the next game in Adelaide, a knock that had the distinct air of score-settling about it as he took on Dennis Lillee and Pascoe.

Patil’s maiden century included 22 boundaries and one six. That aggressive knock came when India were reduced to 130 for 4, and ushered them past the 400-run mark after Australia had put up 528.

Tendulkar over Warne, McGrath (1999-2000) Sachin Tendulkar had become

the youngest batsman to score a

Test century in Australia in 1991-

92; seven years later, he returned

as the world’s best batsman.

He reaffirmed his reputation as

he handled Glenn McGrath and

Shane Warne with technical

precision. While the rest of the

batting collapsed in a 3-0 series

loss, Tendulkar, the captain, used

his feet well and counter-attacked

to charm the crowd. He was at

his dominant best in Melbourne:

his 116 in the first innings there has since become a YouTube classic, while his 52 in the second innings was India’s only hope at that stage. McGrath and Warne

dismissed him twice each in six innings, but by then Tendulkar’s aggregate of 278 had made him the third highest run-getter of the series behind Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer.

Laxman’s Australian affair (2003-04)

VVS Laxman had impressed with a knock of 167 in India’s previous

tour of Australia, and there was also the matter of that epic, match-winning 281 in Kolkata in 2001 adding to his aura. His reputation was only strengthened

when he finished with 494 runs at an average of 82.33 in the four Tests of the 2003-04 tour. Brett Lee, who has dismissed Laxman the most number of times in his career, could not deceive him in the two Tests he played, and the others had little success. Laxman made an important century in the famous Adelaide win, and reserved his best for the Sydney Test where Tendulkar and he

THREAT Shane Warne and

Glenn McGrath got Tendulkar

out twice each in 1999-2000.


put up the highest fourth-wicket partnership for India: 353 runs.

Kumble proves his point through Ponting (2003-04) Anil Kumble was dropped for

the first Test in Brisbane, but he

returned for the second game

in Adelaide and used all his

experience to establish his stature

as India’s No. 1 spinner. At the

receiving end was Ricky Ponting,

who Kumble had accounted for

three times in as many Tests. In

Adelaide, Ponting was batting

on 242 when Kumble had him

caught by Rahul Dravid, and in

Melbourne, another Ponting

double-century was brought to an

end when he was stumped after

having spent close to ten hours at

the crease. Kumble had another

laugh in Australia’s first innings in

Sydney when Ponting was trapped

in front of the wicket. Ponting

finished as the best batsman of

the series, while Kumble, with 24

wickets in three Tests, topped the

bowling charts.

Ishant v Ponting (2007-08)

Ishant Sharma, just three Tests old, made his first real impression with a good spell of fast bowling in Perth, chipping in for an emotional win days after the Monkeygate

episode had nearly ended the tour. Ishant, 19, had bowled seven overs harrying the batsmen, but without wickets to show for it. He was about to be taken off when Virender Sehwag suggested that Anil Kumble, the captain, give him one more over as Ricky Ponting

had looked uncomfortable against him. Kumble famously asked Ishant, “Ek aur over karega (Will you bowl one more over)?” Ishant replied in the affirmative, and

produced a rising ball outside the off stump, which took Ponting’s edge and went to Rahul Dravid at first slip. Ishant had already accounted for Ponting in the first innings, and would go on to dismiss him another five times in his career.

FEUD Ricky Ponting

had looked uncomfortable against Ishant

Sharma all along.


43

THE ONE THAT GOT MIANDAD: “I KNEW IT WAS A SPECIAL DELIVERY”The 1985 World Championship of Cricket win inspired modern greats of Indian cricket, who in turn inspired millions more, says Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, as he shares his highlights of the tournament

KARTHIK LAKSHMANAN

One of India’s most memorable moments in One-Day International cricket was the

World Championship of Cricket final in 1985, when a young side led by Sunil Gavaskar stunned everyone to take the title without losing a match. India had won the World Cup in 1983 but not many

gave them a chance after a string of failures at home the following season.

One of the key players for India during the tournament was Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. The legspinner, just 19 then, made his ODI debut in the tournament and went on to become the highest wicket-taker with ten scalps

from five matches. That included a career-best 3 for 35 in the final against Pakistan - the memorable wicket of Javed Miandad, who was out stumped, was one of them - which helped India to the title.

Almost 30 years on, Sivaramakrishnan remembers the tournament as if it happened only yesterday. He spoke to

INTERVIEW


Wisden India about the victory, the celebrations and what it did to Indian cricket.

What do you first remember when you think about the 1985 World

Championship of Cricket?

My first memory is that of going into the first practice session in Melbourne. It was a huge

stadium and the first time I was there. There were a lot of other youngsters in the side as well, after the home series loss against

England prior to the World

Championship of Cricket. Along

with me, there was Mohammad

Azharuddin, Sadanand Viswanath,

Chetan Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar

and some others. Even an empty Melbourne Cricket Ground motivated us. The moment we landed in MCG and practised

for a couple of days, whatever happened in India prior to that was behind us and we were looking at how to compete in the tournament.

India won the World Cup in 1983, but later lost to West Indies, Australia and England after that. What sparked the turnaround?

Everybody wrote us off even before the tournament began, so there was no pressure on us. People were expecting us to get thrashed. But the first match against Pakistan was the turning point. We had a commanding victory in that match. We bowled them out for 183 and then got the runs quite easily. That gave us the confidence to do well and the momentum for the rest of the tournament.

There was an exuberance of youth

in the side. It was one of the better

fielding sides in that era, if not the

best. It was an all-round fielding

side as we had good fielders in

all positions, be it slips or in the

boundary. That proved to be of

great support to the bowlers and

the energy on the field helped us

build momentum as well.

Against England, Ravi was charged up and got me charged up as well

VICTORIOUS “Everybody wrote us off before the 1985 World Championship of Cricket began.”


45

The pitches were very sporting and suited our bowlers, both pacers and spinners. Kapil Dev and Roger Binny got the ball to bounce and swing. There was turn and bounce for the spinners as well.

While many teams would go for pace in Australia, India went for spin – you and Ravi Shastri came out very successful. What was

the thinking behind that?

Australia had big grounds and big boundaries. The bats were

normal and not like the bats now.

If the batsmen wanted to hit you

out of the ground, there was a

good chance of getting a wicket.

In Australian wickets, spinners

will always get the bounce. If you

are a good spinner, you can get

some turn as well. So turn and

bounce turned out to be a lethal

combination and big-hitting

wasn’t easy. That was the thinking

behind playing both Ravi Shastri

and me in the side.

The best bowling phases of our career coincided with that

tournament. Our bowling in the middle overs turned out to be very crucial for the side.

India won all five matches they played by convincing margins. How did India get the ruthlessness, something

they were not known for?

One of the biggest reasons for that was the settled bowling attack. The plan was simple and worked well. Kapil (Dev) and Roger (Binny) got the early wickets, Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal would then bowl some tight overs to the

EXUBERANT “Everyone jumped on the car with spikes on. Ravi had to make sure he got a new car.”


new batsmen before Ravi and I bowled in the middle overs. The pacers made it easy for us in the middle overs. Ravi and I would regularly share five or six wickets in the middle overs, which meant that the opposition was always playing with the tail going into the death overs. There was pressure throughout the innings that way.

Once we beat Pakistan in the first game, the confidence and morale was up for every individual in the side. We worked that much harder even in the practice sessions. I remember that throughout the tournament, during the practice sessions, fielding and training was compulsory apart from batting and bowling. The focus was specifically on fielding, while some times even batting and bowling were optional.

The effect of that was we were not chasing too many big scores in the tournament. Our highest run chase was 207 (in the semifinal against New Zealand) and our highest score in the tournament was

235 (against England) because we bowled teams out cheaply. The consistency in bowling and fielding from everybody was key for our good show in the tournament.

The icing on the cake would have been the final

against Pakistan.

It was a dream final. There were lots of people who had come in from India particularly for the final. There was a huge crowd in the hotel reception as we left for the ground and after we won the match, a whole lot of Indian fans were waiting for us in the lobby and celebrated our win. It was a

The 1983 World Cup was the turning point for Indian cricket. They realised that India has the potential to defeat big teams. 1985 reconfirmed the fact that India can be world champions. It was a sort of comeback after some poor shows in the period

After years of living in promise, India finally announced themselves as a force in Test cricket. The opening draw in Brisbane set the tone. To expect anything to match Kolkata 2001 was a tough ask, yet Adelaide, where India came back from the dead to fashion a four-wicket win, came close. Ricky Ponting’s 242 had taken Australia to 556, and India were a worrisome 85 for 4 in reply. Rahul Dravid’s magnificent 233 and VVS Laxman’s 148 were a triumph of Indian spirit; they added 303 to become only the third pair to share two triple-century stands. In Melbourne, Ponting’s 257 outdid Virender Sehwag’s 195. In Sydney, there was Sachin Tendulkar’s resilient 241 and Laxman’s 178. But bowlers failed to press forth the advantage as Steve Waugh put victory beyond India‘s reach. The 1-1 scoreline did not fully reveal India’s gains. – Disha Shetty

Most runs: Ricky Ponting – 706 runs at 100.85 (Australia); Rahul Dravid – 619 runs at 123.80 (India)Most wickets: Anil Kumble – 24 wickets at 29.58 (India); Stuart MacGill – 14 wickets at 50.78

TOUR HISTORY



47

big-pressure match, but we had a young side that could handle it very well.

But, actually, we were hoping to face West Indies in the final. It would have been a repeat of the 1983 World Cup final and we could defeat them again, but that didn’t happen. If we had defeated West Indies in the final, it would have been a complete tournament for us. But they lost to Pakistan in the semifinal and we hadn’t played them in the league stages either. They were in the other half of the draw. It wasn’t in our control.

Your best performance was reserved for the final.

I remember that I came in to bowl very late in the innings (34th over). It was almost like death bowling. I didn’t know what was going on but I eventually bowled the last over of the innings as well. Ravi, Amarnath and Madan Lal were bowling well in the middle overs so Gavaskar brought me in when there was a partnership building between Imran Khan and Javed Miandad.

Gavaskar planned it in such a way that I could come in late when

Pakistan were re-establishing their innings. He wanted to cramp them up for runs and create a situation where they had to go after me straightaway when I came on, and they lost their wickets when they tried that. In my second over, Imran was run out and then I got Javed Miandad and Saleem Malik off successive deliveries.

Having faith in me to bowl the last

over was a special feeling. I still

remember Kapil Dev running in

from the deep to take the ball for

the final over. He had bowled only

nine overs and asked Gavaskar

if he wanted him to bowl the

final over. But Gavaskar said I’m

bowling well and gave me the

confidence. I was still trying to get

a wicket in the final over, because

if that had happened, we would have bowled out all sides in the tournament.

One of the memorable moments of the final was Miandad getting out stumped off your bowling.

Talk us through that.

I don’t know how many people will believe me when I say this, but the moment I delivered the ball, I knew it was a special delivery.

Once you release the ball, something will tell your mind if it’s a good ball or a bad ball. When I released the ball, I knew that something special was going to happen. It dipped on Javed and then turned after pitching. He didn’t step out to hit, he was just beaten in the air and was dragged outside the crease trying to reach the ball.

I almost got a hat-trick as well.

The next ball went over long on.

Wasim Raja was the batsman and

I bowled a googly to try and get

him lbw. I didn’t expect him to

have a slog at that, but he went for

the big shot and Amarnath was

about 10 metres inside at long on.

It went just over his head.

To go to Australia for the World Championship, become the highest wicket-taker in the tournament, and help the side win the cup when everybody wrote us off was easily the best phase of my career


Any regret that you didn’t get the hat-trick?

A hat-trick would have been better. I still think that if I had got the hat-trick, I would have got the Man of the Match award in the final.

How were the celebrations after the win? Shastri’s Audi was almost

damaged...

Not almost, completely! He got an Audi for being the Champion of Champions and his car was completely damaged after the final. Everybody jumped on it with spikes on. The car had marks all over it and Ravi had to make sure he got a brand new car later.

I think it was one of the first times

that someone had got a car as an

award and we got to drive around

the ground on it. It was a great

moment for us, we celebrated

with champagne and stuff. Ravi,

Gavaskar and myself still talk

about it. It was one of the great

moments of Indian cricket that

I’ve been part of.

What was it like to share

the room with Ravi Shastri?

Ravi and I have been friends ever since we played Under-19s together. I remember the morning of the match against England in particular. England had the better of us in India just before the tournament and their captain had made some statements in the media prior to the match.

Shastri woke me up early in the morning after reading the papers, made me read the article and said, “We have to prove that we are better than them. The way we’re bowling in this tournament, we will show it to them today.” They were chasing 236 and after 25 overs, they were on a par with where we were. But Ravi and I had spoken about it just before the match, took it up as a personal challenge and took three wickets each and bowled them out cheaply (149).

That is one particular match that I remember – Ravi was charged up and got me charged up as well.

What did the tournament mean for you, personally?

That tournament was the highest point in my career. The Test series against England (23 wickets from five matches) was pretty good

as well, but we lost the series. My individual performance was satisfactory but we were disappointed that we lost a Test series at home against England. But to go to Australia for the World Championship, become the highest wicket-taker in the tournament, and help the side win the cup when everybody wrote us off was easily the best phase of my career.

One thing in Australia any cricketer has to be careful about is the media. I was told by Gavaskar not to bowl a single googly in the nets, because there would be television cameras all over trying to find out what you do in practice. “Just come and bowl leg-breaks for an hour, have some fielding practice and go,” is what Gavaskar told me then. Even back then, the Australian media was always attacking other teams. That was one of my learnings.

How would you compare the win to the 1983 World Cup win?

The 1983 World Cup was the turning point for Indian cricket. 1983 was the high point when everybody looked at India as


49

THE FINAL “It was a high-pressure match against Pakistan, but we had a young side.”

a part of the cricketing world. They realised that India has the potential to defeat big teams, and 1985 reconfirmed the fact that India could be world champions. It was a sort of comeback after some poor shows in the period.

Unlike the 1983 World Cup, a lot of youngsters in India would have seen the 1985 World Championship on television in India. In the World Cup, India had to beat Zimbabwe to qualify and Kapil made a brilliant 175, but it wasn’t shown in India due to the broadcast strike. But the 1985 tournament was followed by many people back home, and that would have inspired a lot of them. VVS Laxman still talks about waking up early and watching that tournament, so it was a big inspiration for many.

The 1985 victory definitely proved that the World Cup victory was not a one-off or fluke. Both happened overseas and in different conditions.

Finally, what did the victory do for Indian cricket?

That victory did a lot of wonderful things for Indian cricket. The likes

of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman,

Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly

remember the 1985 World

Championship as one of the best

Indian performances they have

seen.

A lot of youngsters including

those legends were inspired by

the victory. When you inspire

youngsters, they are bound to

become great cricketers. They

evolve into great cricketers after

seeing such performances. We

managed to inspire those four

people, and those four people

inspired millions more in the

coming years.


HIGH-IMPACT HISTORYThe Indians who have done well on the high-pressure tours of Australia

India have a dismal Test record in Australia. They have won just five of the 40 Tests played there – two in 1977-78 and one each in 1981, 2003 and 2008

– and never a series. So while identifying the highest impact Indian performances, detailed below, more consideration has been given to consistency,

ability to do well under pressure and contribution to the match, rather than the series-defining performances, which are few and far between.

Highest Impact Batsmen

Number Name Matches Batting Impact

SDs Runs Tally Impact

Pressure Impact

Failure Rate (in %)

1 Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi 3 3.76 1 2.16 1.59 0

2 Sandeep Patil 3 3.58 0 2 1.17 0

3 Gundappa Viswanath 8 2.64 0 2.02 0.49 25

4 Sunil Gavaskar 11 2.58 0 2.19 0.14 36

5 Rusi Surti 4 2.42 1 1.67 0.13 29

Minimum number of matches: 3 SDs: Series-defining performances All Impact numbers between 0 and 5


51

BATTING IMPACT

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi led India in three Tests in Australia in 1967-68 and was the highest impact batsman of the series. He scored 75 of a total of 173 (from 25 for 5) in Melbourne, and 74 (from 9 for 3) and 48 (from 61 for 3) in Brisbane. He absorbed the pressure of falling wickets better than any other Indian batsman.

His Runs Tally Impact (proportion of runs scored in a match) is second only to Sunil Gavaskar’s – an incredible feat, considering he batted at No. 7 and 5 in the series.

Sandeep Patil scored tough

runs under pressure of falling

wickets, and that too at a

healthy strike rate, in all three Tests on India’s 1980-81 tour: 65 off 78 (from 70 for 4), 174 off 240 (from 130 for 4) and a series-defining performance in the final Test at MCG, where coming in to bat at 243 for 3 – India had faced a deficit of 182 so were only 61 runs ahead) he smashed 36 off 26 balls.

Gundappa Viswanath was the highest impact player of

the 1977-78 tour. He scored

89 (coming in at 23 for 2) and

then 73 (from 79 for 2) in a

final-innings chase of 493 in

Adelaide. India fell short by

47 runs. Viswanath’s series-

defining performance came

in the final Test of the 1981

tour, when coming in to bat

at 22 for 2 in the first innings,

he scored a brilliant 114; the second-highest score was 25).

Sunil Gavaskar has the highest Runs Tally, Partnership-building and New Ball Impact (ability to see off and score runs off the new ball) among all Indian batsmen. His 113 in the second innings of the first Test at the Gabba in 1977 almost helped India pull off a victory. Chasing 341 in the final innings, the visiting

Indian team fell short by just 17 runs.

Rusi Surti was consistent

in the four Tests he played

in Australia in 1967-68 with

his highest impact batting

performance coming in the

third Test at the Gabba.

Walking in to bat at 5 for 2, he

Highest Impact Bowlers

Number Name Matches Bowling Impact

SDs Wickets Tally Impact

Economy Impact

Failure Rate (in %)

1 Bishan Singh Bedi 7 2.8 0 3.14 0.16 14

2 Kapil Dev 11 2.61 0 2.56 0.19 9

3 Shivlal Yadav 5 2.52 0 2.62 0.15 40

4 Dilip Doshi 3 2.48 0 2.07 0.44 33

5 Anil Kumble 10 2.32 0 2.78 0.04 30



scored 52 in the first innings and backed that up with 64 in the second (from 48 for 2).

Highest Runs Tally Impact batsmen (proportion of runs scored): Sunil Gavaskar, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Gundappa Viswanath, Sandeep Patil and Rusi Surti.

Highest Pressure Impact

batsmen (most pressure absorbed of falling wickets): Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sandeep Patil, Manoj Prabhakar, Dattu Phadkar and Rusi Surti.

Highest Partnership-building Impact batsmen (ability to occupy crease and build partnerships): Sunil Gavaskar, Mansur Ali Khan

Pataudi, Gundappa Viswanath, Mohinder Amarnath and Ravi Shastri.

Most consistent batsmen (lowest failure rates): Rusi Surti, Dattu Phadkar, Sandeep Patil, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Gundappa Viswanath.

BOWLING IMPACT

Bishan Singh Bedi took 35 wickets in seven Tests in Australia and has the highest Wickets-Tally Impact. He was the highest impact bowler of the 1977-78 tour, with his highest impact performance coming in the second Test in Perth – 5 for 89 off 31 overs and 5 for 105 off 30.2 overs (eight top/middle-order wickets).

Kapil Dev was India’s most experienced and consistent bowler over three tours – 1980-81, 1985-86, 1991-92. His most memorable performance came in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval in 1985, when he picked up 8 for 106 off 38 overs in the first innings. His highest impact bowling performance came at the same ground in

1992, in the fourth Test, when he picked up eight wickets, including seven top/middle-order ones.

Shivlal Yadav, the offspinner, gave three noteworthy performances in the five Tests he played in Australia. His most significant was in the last Test of the 1985-86 tour, at SCG, when he took 5 for

Highest all-round impact

Number Name Matches Overall Impact

SDs Batting Impact

Bowling Impact

Failure Rate (in %)

1 Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi 3 3.76 0 3.76 0 0

2 Sandeep Patil 3 3.63 1 3.58 0.13 0

3 Rusi Surti 4 3.56 0 2.42 2.03 0

4 Manoj Prabhakar 5 3.51 0 1.87 1.79 0

5 Kapil Dev 11 3.36 0 0.89 2.61 0



53

99 off 62.3 overs in the first innings and backed that up with 3 for 19 off 33 in the second. He was the highest impact bowler of the series with a high propensity to take top/middle-order wickets.

Dilip Doshi is India’s most restrictive bowler in Australia. His 3 for 146 off 48 overs and 3 for 49 off 33 in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval in 1981 was his highest impact bowling performance from three Tests.

Anil Kumble had a disappointing tour in 1999-2000, but emerged as not only the highest impact bowler but also the highest impact player from both sides in 2003-04. He led the aggregate wickets-tally and bowling average charts too. His highest impact bowling performance came in the fourth Test at SCG in 2004, when he picked up 8 for 141 off 46.5 overs in the first innings and 4 for 138 off 42 in the second. He was also India’s highest impact bowler on their next tour in 2007-08.

Note: Ajit Agarkar, who is at No. 6 on the bowlers’ impact list, produced a match-winning

6 for 41 off 16.2 overs in the second innings in Adelaide in 2003, which gave India a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.India had not beaten Australia in a Test in Australia for 22 years then. This performance changed the momentum of the series and gave Agarkar a series-defining performance. No other Indian has recorded a series-defining performance in Australia purely for his bowling efforts.

Highest Top/Middle-order Wickets Tally Impact bowlers (wickets of top/middle-order batsmen): Bishan Singh Bedi, Anil Kumble, Shivlal Yadav, Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan.

Highest Economy Impact bowlers: Dilip Doshi, Erapalli Prasanna, Lala Amarnath, Kapil Dev and Bishan Bedi.

Highest Pressure-building Impact bowlers (taking wickets in quick succession to build pressure): Bishan Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Irfan Pathan.

Most consistent bowlers (lowest failure rates): Manoj

Prabhakar, Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Rusi Surti and Irfan Pathan.

ALL-ROUND IMPACT

Rusi Surti played four Tests on the 1967-68 tour, giving consistent performances. The most significant was his performance in Brisbane – a match haul of six wickets and two half-centuries. India had been 5 for 2 and 48 for 2 when Surti came out to bat in the two innings. He is the highest impact allrounder for India in Australia.

Manoj Prabhakar gave stellar performances with the bat and ball in the first and fourth Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide, scoring valuable runs under pressure and picking up crucial top/middle-order wickets.

Highest Impact All-Rounders (in a match context): Rusi Surti, Manoj Prabhakar, Kapil Dev, Dattu Phadkar, Abid Ali.


‘SPINNERS ARE AS GOOD AS THE CAPTAIN LETS THEM BE’A bowler’s perspective on playing in Australia

ERAPALLI PRASANNA

FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNT

Playing in Australia

has its own set of

challenges. It can

be an intimidating

experience for

someone touring the country for

the first time. It was certainly

that way for many of us when we

toured in 1967-68. We weren’t a

great team at home, but we used

to compete well. So as a unit, our

challenge was to sustain that

when we travelled overseas.

Australia is a great place to play

cricket because the people are

extremely passionate. But playing

at an arena like Melbourne Cricket

Ground can be an intimidating

experience at the best of times,

particularly if you are on your

first tour of the country. What you

don’t want is to misfield or drop

a catch near the boundary. If you

do, you’ve had it. That tour was

a learning curve for many of us.

We lost 4-0, but the experience

made us richer. The thing about

Australia is, if you fail to arrest

the slide early on, it can become

a mentally draining tour, because

every aspect of your cricket is

tested.


55

Over the years, I’ve constantly been asked why spinners are unlikely to succeed in Australia. It’s a question I’ve found tough to answer. The surfaces may not exactly be conducive to spin, barring Adelaide and Sydney, to an extent. But what you will get there is bounce, and if you are tactful, there is no bigger weapon than that.

One of the lessons I learnt very early is that you shouldn’t experiment. You need to have one stock ball. Back then, during my time, variation meant variation in length and not deliveries like the doosra or the carrom ball. That is also the reason why some of the great bowlers like Richie Benaud and Shane Warne were very successful in their own conditions.

Another mistake you shouldn’t make in Australia, and I learnt during my first tour: Don’t be

impatient. In the subcontinent, you can expect one wicket to lead to two more on dust bowls. But in Australian conditions, you need to set up a batsman.

The ones during my time were particularly good. Ian Chappell was one of the best I’ve bowled to and I enjoyed our tussles. He didn’t let you relax and would read your mind. So the challenge was not just to deceive him in flight, but also in the mind. And for that, you needed a sound attack, bowlers who could sustain pressure and keep a check on the runs at the other end.

That is something we managed to do successfully when we went back almost a decade later, in 1977-78, although we lost the series 2-3. It was a great team performance, one that all of us remember fondly. Our win in Melbourne is particularly memorable because of the manner in which we fought back to win (by 222 runs)

Here, the off-field controversies hogged the headlines. In Melbourne, India were looked uncomfortable – none more so than Rahul Dravid, who made an agonising 66-ball 5 and a 114-ball 16. In Sydney, they were quashed by Andrew Symonds‘s unbeaten 162, allegations that Harbhajan Singh had racially abused Symonds, Michael Clarke taking three wickets in five balls, and questionable umpiring. A three-match ban on Harbhajan had India ready to hop on the next flight home. At Perth, better batting, a mesmerising spell by 19-year-old Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan‘s all-round efforts inspired India to a rousing win. The Adelaide Test, which Adam Gilchrist announced would be his swansong, ended in a high-scoring draw. India ultimately won the PR war: the ban on Harbhajan was revoked, while Symonds was never the same player again. – Nisha Shetty

Most runs: Sachin Tendulkar – 493 runs at 70.42 (India); Matthew Hayden – 410 runs at 82.00 Most wickets: Brett Lee – 24 wickets at 22.58; Anil Kumble – 20 wickets at 34.45 (India)

TOUR HISTORY



after losing the first two Tests. It showed the team’s character.

Similarly, I hope the current Indian team on tour in Australia exhibits grit and determination and they are capable of it. You need to be mentally tough. The team lost an opportunity in England, but the overall balance of the squad is good.

In the 1977-78 series, we played three spinners. I had Chandra (BS

Chandrasekhar) and Bish (Bishan Singh Bedi) for company, and all of us were at the batsman’s

throat at the same time. There was no let-up in intensity. We were successful because all of us had an attacking mindset and that stems from what your captain expects from you.

If he wants you to keep the runs down and sets defensive fields, then automatically you are subconsciously tied down even before bowling a ball. The challenge is to bring the close-in fielders into play. And for that you need to attack. So, if I were to pick a side, I’d definitely have two spinners straightaway along with three pacers, which means someone like R Ashwin, who has batted well, should also double up as an allrounder.

Two attacking spinners would give the captain the luxury of attacking from the middle overs till maybe the second new ball. But again, as I have stressed repeatedly, your spinners are only

as good as the captain lets them be.

The fast bowling department looks well stocked but I expect the spinners to have an equal impact and if India are to do well, then they will have to play a vital role.

As told to Shashank Kishore

Erapalli Prasanna made his Test debut in 1961-62. After playing a few Tests, he took a break of five years to finish his undergraduate studies (he did engineering) and returned to the team in 1967.

COVERDRIVE

You don‘t want to misfield or drop a catch near the boundary. If you do, you‘ve had it.

DON’T EXPERIMENT “That’s why Richie Benaud and Shane Warne were successful”


57

‘OUR SPINNERS COULDN’T GET AN U-16 OUT’Matthew Hayden on the India-Australia rivalry and the teams’ chances ahead of their next meeting

KRITIKA NAIDU

INTERVIEW

Towering, dominant and resolute, Matthew Hayden, the former Australian opener,

was essentially a one-man wrecking crew. His batting, led by power and precision gave him the aptitude to single-handedly demolish opponents to take the game away from them.

Prior to his maiden first-class game, he had asked if anyone had scored a double-century on debut. He then went on to score 149, which set the tone for his career. After his fair share of initial disappointments since making his debut in 1994, he sealed a spot as a Test regular in the series against India in 2001, and went on to be a part of a great Australian side.

Ahead of India’s four-match Test series in Australia, he reflects on what exactly it is like when the teams meet, the rivalry, his stint in India, and what makes for a successful side. Edited excerpts: What are areas in which

you think the current

Australian side has scope

for improvement?


Definitely their play

against spin, from a batting

perspective. We probably

don’t help ourselves. But I

guess we’re not the only ones;

when India come to Australia

or when they tour elsewhere

where conditions aren’t their

own, they struggle. The way

that the programmes are

set up, you never really get

a chance to catch up in your

preparation. You’re always

basically going straightaway to

fixtures and matches.

In my first Ashes series, we

had close to two months of

match play before the first

Test match. These guys are

put straight into matches and

tournaments and that affects

the way they go about trying to

make the changes necessary to

adjust to those conditions. So

what it really means is that the

guys are going to be preparing

in their own country, in their

home conditions. In fact, one of the strengths of my campaign in India was to give myself a chance while I wasn’t playing Test cricket, to

really get that bank of experience and thinking around, getting accustomed to subcontinental conditions where I felt like I was going to make contributions in the future. And that was mainly because I wasn’t really good enough to play for Australia at that time. Would you say bowling is Australia’s strength like

batting is India’s?

I actually think bowling is our strength. We have quite a settled bowling line-up. If you bring back Ryan Harris, who’s just taken seven wickets in his last Shield game… put him, (Peter) Siddle, Mitchell Johnson together, and maybe Josh Hazlewood, and they’re as good as they can get. I think Hazlewood is a really good bowler. For me, he’s almost come into his own a bit now.

Then our spinning department is just still. It needs something to

India have gone through that transition phase better than we in Australia haveDetermined to bounce back

from the 3-1 Ashes loss at home,

Australia hammered India 4-0 in

the four Test series and handed the

visitors their eighth consecutive

away Test loss in the final game.

India’s batting let them down as

they crossed the 300-run mark

just once in eight innings. For

Australia, this series threw up

many positives. Michael Clarke

scored a double and a triple-

century, Ricky Ponting was among

the runs and while Ben Hilfenhaus

and Peter Siddle wreaked havoc,

James Pattinson, just two Tests old

at that time, impressed everyone.

This series posed questions of

the Indian management and the

players. And for Sachin Tendulkar,

Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, it

would be the last tour to that part

of the world. – Akash Sarkar

Most runs: Michael Clarke – 626

runs at 125.20 (Australia); Virat

Kohli – 300 runs at 37.50 (India)

Most wickets: Ben Hilfenhaus – 27

wickets at 17.22 (Australia); Zaheer

Khan – 15 wickets at 31.80 (India)

TOUR SUMMARY



59

AGGRESSIVE David Warner will be someone to look out for, says Matthew Hayden.

bring it up to be compared with Indian players. In the middle stages of the game, where the ball stops seaming and swinging, you have the likes of (Shane) Watson, but he’s always on the verge of getting injured. And you have a spin bowling line-up that couldn’t get Under-16s out. That’s how tough it is. That’s our Achilles heel.

That’s our Achilles heel in our batting as well because when Michael Clarke is out, looking at our line-up, you wonder who’s going to play spin. David Warner is not a bad player of spin either. He’s going to go after the spin

bowlers and attack, but that’s just the way he plays. Buck Rogers is a woeful player of spin. He’s really got to lift in this next series if he gets a go, and unless you can play spin, I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

You were always an aggressive batsman at the top... do you think David Warner has filled in that

role well?

I like how Warner plays. I like the

way he goes about his business.

He is a much improved player,

he really is. He has the hunger of

(Virat) Kohli, I reckon. He has been

knocked back and now he has that hunger, and he understands where he can toe the line. He has performed really well in the last one year. He stepped up a lot. He will be someone to look out for in the series because he can play spin well. He’s a little bit like Gilly – as far as he can be so brilliant, and because he is, he plays some shots where you wonder how he can do that! It’s like a complete brain fade. That’s the charm of watching someone like him. He can devastate you or the new ball will expose you. What do you make of the current Indian Test side?

They are a very good Test side.

They’ve got a very high level of

players. Obviously they’ve lost the

former set of great players that are

Spending long periods of time at the crease, accumulating runs, spinning patiently, leaving balls – those are a few things I’d say are needed to be successful here


hard to replace. It’s the same with

Australia as well. But for me, guys like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, have stepped into their shoes really well and have really pinned down their best spots and proven their potential. I think India have gone through that transition phase better than we in Australia have. Beyond Michael Clarke, who is injured now, our next captain is someone who is basically almost ready to retire and that’s not a good sign. I do think Brad Haddin is the right person for the job, to

captain the country, but it worries me that we are looking at a captain who is in his 30s and looking to be on his swansong. Whereas, India probably have four or five guys who can actually lead their country and that is a very healthy sign for Indian cricket. Why are India-Australia clashes looked forward to

as much as they are?

It has been a long rivalry. I think it’s

been built on the fact that Australia

love a challenge. Especially in

subcontinental conditions, we

have battled with that challenge. I

feel like India has really grown as well. When I first started playing against India, it was always… not subservient, but it felt like it sort of didn’t fit. But in the last ten years, that has changed and the attitude is like, ‘Hang on a second, we not only own the game, but we are the game. We’re going to play accordingly.’ That is the sort of feeling about the flex of Indian muscle behind cricket. And that has created a competitive sense to which Australia would say, ‘Hang on, not under our watch.’ But it’s a pretty cool focus for the tournament. We tend to play each other a lot. We play with Indian players in the IPL. I wish there was enough time in the cricket calendar for Indian players to come to Australia and play within the franchise-based competitions. It would further enable the relationships to grow. Your favourite memory of facing India

Probably the conditions in Madras

(Chennai). Even though we lost

that Test match, it was amazing.

That series in particular was an

CITY CONNECT “Not only was I successful in Chennai, I became part of that community.”


61

USP Hayden says he was helped by an understanding

of the strategy behind spin

bowling.

amazing series where it went up

and down like a yo-yo and we were

at the end of the beating in that series. But to me it was memorable because, 2001 was when I came back into international cricket and I started to make my mark on the game. I saw Chennai for the first time in 1995-96 when a small unit of Australian batsmen was selected to practise at the MRF Pace Foundation. There was also a

small spin-bowling camp that was going on under Bishan Singh Bedi. I’ll never forget I was walking off the ground and I turned to Matthew Elliott and said: “One day I’m going to get a Test hundred here.” You say these things in jest often, but I really felt a strong connection with that particular ground and the experience.

Not only was I successful at that

ground and scored a double

century, but I became a part of

that community and that ground

(in the IPL). It’s a remarkable

story. What different would India have to do in order to do

well in Australia?

I think it’s very important for

them to learn how to leave the ball. The hardest thing to do here in Australia is to actually leave the ball. Whereas on Indian wickets, the ball never really bounces over the stumps, so you get drawn into playing shots. Additionally, it is a different brand of cricket as far as you have to run in this country. You need to be a good runner to score runs.

When I go to my son’s coaching camp, I see that there aren’t too many aspiring to become the next Shane Warne or Harbhajan. They want to bowl fast


In India, you might hit the ball and it’s a four, but here you hit it and it might go for one or two. So, spending long periods of time at the crease, accumulating runs, spinning patiently, leaving balls – those are a few things I’d say are needed to be successful here. How was it working with Bishan Singh Bedi and other Indian spinners to

learn a style of batting that would work on the

subcontinent?

It helped me a lot. I guess when I arrived in Test cricket, facing off against Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in that period, I knew their mentality. I knew that if Sourav Ganguly set a 6-3 field, I knew exactly what Harbhajan was trying to achieve. So the focus was in and around batting, but what actually gave me the insight was understanding the strategy behind spin bowling, which I never had learnt in my development. It’s not part of our curriculum. Even when I go to my son’s coaching camp, I see that there aren’t too many aspiring to become the next Shane Warne or Harbhajan. They want to bowl fast. What is the key to being successful in the

subcontinent?

I think being successful in the

subcontinent has a lot to do with

the person first, then a player. Off

the field is where it comes first.

Things have really changed there

since I first travelled there. It’s

quite a different place now. But I

think having a really good attitude to do the things that we’re not used to and adjusting is the key. For instance, the mass of people, dealing with that, the closeness of people, the interaction…it’s very different from here. It’s busy, very busy. For me it was easy to embrace the food because from a culinary point of view, I loved the experiences I had there. The heat –coming Queensland was lucky for me because it is so hot here anyway. Acclimatising your body to that climate and having a general sense of wellbeing really helped me. I always felt really comfortable around Indian people and I think they did so in my company as well. That in turn has always spurred me to feel calm and achieve the success I have had there.

* Of the 11 batsman who have hit 30 Test hundreds, Hayden has reached there the fastest with respect to number of matches played.

* Sachin Tendulkar’s 1809 runs is the fourth highest on Australian soil by an opposition player and the highest by a non-Englishman.

COVERDRIVEQUIZ, DOWN

UNDER: ANSWERS

1. Vijay Hazare

2. ML Jaisimha

3. Hundred by a nightwatchman

4. Sadanand Viswanath

5. Sachin Tendulkar

6. Jaywant Lele, the then BCCI secretary

7. Anil Kumble

8. Bill Woodfull, Australian captain during Bodyline series

9. Praveen Kumar

10. Virender Sehwag


63

INDIA’S TEST SQUADFIXTURESFOR AUSTRALIA TOUR 2014 - 15TEST SERIES

TRI-SERIES 2014-15

Dec 9-13: 1st TestAdelaide Oval

Dec 17-21: 2nd TestBrisbane Cricket Ground

Dec 26-30: 3rd TestMelbourne Cricket Ground

Dec 9-13: 4th TestSydney Cricket Ground

Jan 16: 1st ODIAustralia v EnglandSydney Cricket Ground

Jan 18: 2nd ODIAUSTRALIA v INDIA Melbourne Cricket Ground

Jan 20: 3rd ODIENGLAND v INDIA Brisbane Cricket Ground

Jan 23: 4th ODIAUSTRALIA v ENGLAND Bellerive Oval, Hobart

Jan 26: 5th ODIAUSTRALIA v INDIA Sydney Cricket Ground

Jan 30: 6th ODIENGLAND v INDIAWACA, Perth

Feb 1: FinalTBC v TBCWACA, Perth

MS DHONI

AJINKYA RAHANE

NAMAN OJHA

VIRAT KOHLI

ROHIT SHARMA

R ASHWIN MOHAMMED SHAMI

SHIKHAR DHAWAN

SURESH RAINA

RAVINDRA JADEJA

ISHANT SHARMA

M VIJAY

KL RAHUL

KARN SHARMA

VARUN AARON

CHETESHWAR PUJARA

WRIDDHIMAN SAHA

BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR

UMESH YADAV


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