RevSportz Comment
To understand why the Woolloongabba in Brisbane is such a forbidding venue, you only have to look at Queensland’s cricket history. Queensland’s Maroons are one half of one of sport’s most ferocious rivalries, Rugby League’s State of Origin clashes which can sell out stadiums as big as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). But in the bat-and-ball sport, the New South Wales Blues were usually from another planet. Queensland first entered the Sheffield Shield in 1926-27, 34 years after the competition began, and had to wait three decades just to finish second.
By the time they lifted the trophy for the first time in 1994-95, under the leadership of Allan Border – a New South Welshman – their bitter rivals had won it 42 times. Queensland’s players didn’t just have chips on the shoulder; they carried Atlas-like burdens. Those who were part of that historic first triumph, like Matthew Hayden, Martin Love, Jimmy Maher and Andy Bichel, have often compared that Gabba win to their finest moments wearing Australia’s baggy green.
Then, there is the Gabba factor itself. The stadium is small by Australian standards – a capacity of just 37,000 – and now old and dilapidated. It is likely to be phased out after the 2032 Olympics. But over the years, it has been an Australian fortress, with 42 wins and just 10 defeats in 66 Tests played there. Two of those losses were before WWII, one with a weakened side during Packer’s World Series Cricket, and four in the wilderness years of the 1980s, when even a ridiculed England side won at the Gabba (1986-87) thanks to Ian Botham’s heroics.
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But after a nine-wicket thrashing by Viv Richards’ West Indies in November 1988, Australia didn’t lose there until Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant made the impossible possible during the last Test of the Covid-affected tour of 2020-21. That India didn’t have to deal with a baying crowd as the match wound down was clearly a factor. The MCG’s Bay 13 may be notorious, and Sydney’s Hill (it is gone now, replaced with the Victor Trumper Stand) loud, but when Australia are on top, the Gabba can be a real bear pit.
Expect plenty of support for Nathan McSweeney, Brisbane-born and bred, and for Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja, whose red-ball skills came of age at the Gabba while wearing the maroon cap. It can be a fiercely parochial crowd and the support is unstinting, from first ball to last. The Indian pacers who test McSweeney with a short ball or two will get a response as soon as they wander close to the boundary rope.
Back in 2003, after he was promised ‘chin music’, Sourav Ganguly smashed his most authoritative Test century at the Gabba. The bowler he targetted most was Bichel, one of the local heroes, whose 28 overs cost 130 runs. But despite the pasting he got, Bichel never once walked back to his bowling mark without hearing yells and shouts of encouragement from the stands. And though he was from the country town of Kingaroy, Matt the Bat (Hayden) enjoyed similar support as he blazed his way to a 98-ball 99 in the second innings of that drawn Test.
Having won under lights in Adelaide, Australia arrive at the Gabba with their tail up. They will regard what happened nearly four years ago as an anomaly, and both Gill and Pant can expect feisty welcomes to the crease. India’s victory in Brisbane last time was a high watermark in the country’s cricket history. If they can somehow replicate it at a ‘Gabbatoir’ packed to the rafters, it will be a win like no other.
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