Boria Majumdar in Sydney
Australia are on the cusp of winning their first Border-Gavaskar Trophy in a decade, while India know that a win in Sydney would mean that all that happened in Melbourne would soon be forgotten. The stakes are at their highest. Battlelines are drawn, and neither team will back down. India’s weaknesses stand exposed, while Australia too have their own issues with batting. Former India players have rallied behind Rohit Sharma’s team and, in sum, India aren’t just the eleven players on the park and the seven on the bench. The bonding now extends to all the past greats who know Rohit and his boys can do the job if some things go right and the correct selection calls are made.
Purpose: that’s what has to define Rohit’s team as they practice at the SCG later today. A couple of days off is good enough to refresh Jasprit Bumrah and the bowling unit, and what is interesting is how they are now being looked at in Australia. For the first time in my two decades of covering cricket in Australia, I see a sense of awe among the Australians regarding an Indian fast bowler. It was always the Australians who had the aces – be it Bruce Reid, Craig McDermott, Mike Whitney and Merv Hughes or, later, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee.
Now, the tables have turned. Bumrah, fast and furious, is the best by a distance. He has done it time and again in this series. There’s no reason why he cannot do it one more time at the start of the new year. In fact, it is expected that he will. A failure would be an aberration; such is the quality of Bumrah’s bowling at the moment.
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The key yet again will be the batting. That was what eventually made the difference in Melbourne. The moment Pat Cummins won the toss and Australia put up 474 on the board, the result was a foregone conclusion. India, with a fragile batting group, never stood a chance. The focus at the SCG will again be on the batsman. Can they do what they did in Perth? Can Yashasvi Jaiswal, who looked assured and hungry, make it count yet again? Can he again blunt the new ball and allow Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja to come in with the ball 30 overs old? Can Rohit, Ricky Ponting’s comments notwithstanding, finally construct an innings of patience and solidity, and can Kohli do what his fans have been expecting of him all series?
Exactly 16 years ago, it was this very ground which witnessed one of the most controversial Test matches in history. While the world now knows of the incident as Monkeygate, few remember that Australia won that Test in the last few minutes and broke out into wild celebrations. I remember Sachin Tendulkar and the rest of the Indian team being dismayed by the fact that the Aussies did not even bother shaking hands at the conclusion of the game.
This isn’t an age of ugly celebrations. Australia don’t play the same brand of cricket anymore. Yes, they play to win, but they also want to win hearts. Unfortunately, hearts aren’t won if they lose. And that’s what Rohit and his boys know well. They know that a win here will redeem them after the MCG collapse?. Has there ever been a Test match in recent memory where the stakes are higher? The answer is a straight NO. Time for the umpires to call play.
Also Read: Circa 2024, Bumrah’s annus mirabilis