Opinion
There’s no doubt the Australian camp will be thrilled at the result in the first Test, which seemed a very long way away after both sides had completed their first innings.
India rightly earned a significant lead (that should have been even larger), but for some poor catching. Most cricket fans will only remember the series-opening day-night Test for India’s unbelievable second innings collapse, but at one stage in their first innings, Australia were 7 for 111.
Tim Paine managed to cobble together another 80 runs with Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood. In effect, three tail-enders stood between an okay first innings and a very poor first innings. The rest, as they say, is history.
There’s no doubt Australia will be confident heading to Melbourne, but that confidence cannot turn into cockiness or complacency.
For a start, India cannot field or bat that badly again. These are the two areas that let them down badly in the first Test. There’s little doubt they’ll be working hard on both these areas of the game over the coming days and Australia should expect significant improvement in both departments.
India also have fond recent memories of the Boxing Day Test.
If we look back to the last time these sides met at the MCG, India kept exactly the same Australian attack in the field for just over 169 overs, grinding out 443 runs and only losing seven wickets in the process. Jasprit Bumrah then had a field day, taking 6 for 33, restricting Australia to a first innings score of 151 and eventually running out comfortable winners by 137 runs and to a 2-1 series lead.
All of that action happened after Australia easily beat Virat Kohli’s men by 146 runs in Perth, with India only making 140 in its second innings. Naturally, Australia were both elated and confident coming into Melbourne in 2018, but a Cheteshwar Pujara masterclass in batting put Tim Paine’s men well and truly in their places and the Australians never recovered in that series.
Australia’s gloveman and captain, Tim Paine (Photo by Mark Brake – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Things are clearly different this time around in the India XI – Kohli, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami are now all unavailable. There’s no doubt the Indians will miss the class all three bring to the team, but they still have plenty of guys capable of stepping up, especially against an Australian batting side that looked distinctly frail in Adelaide.
Guys like Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant can take the game away from Australia in a session, that is, after Pujara has done his thing! Then Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj can take on a weak opening pair and an underperforming top order.
A further reason for the Australians not wanting to be complacent is because the Boxing Day Test is not one India needs to win. Of course, they’ll be doing their best to level the series, but a draw for them is not the worst result.
Remember, India hold the Border/Gavaskar trophy and only need to draw the series to retain it. They’ll seriously fancy their chances at the SCG, where they made well over 600 last tour and guys like Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Jadeja would be a handful.
If they draw the MCG Test and win in Sydney, Australia have to win in Brisbane and trying to force a result is a very hard thing to do, especially with unpredictable Brisbane weather a chance to play its part in the result.
Many are suggesting this series is already over thanks to the result in Adelaide, but it would be folly for Australian players to believe that and play accordingly. The Indian side is still chock full of talent and they will be smarting at the way they lost first up and keen to make amends for their fans back home.
The Boxing Day game could well be the defining Test of this series and Australia cannot afford to take India lightly.
If the team thinks it’s already got this series wrapped up, there’s every chance India could cause the same sort of embarrassment at the MCG as Tim Paine’s men did at the Adelaide Oval.
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