The Battlefield Below – Hindustan Times

It took India seven decades to conquer the frontier. This was six years ago. For the earlier Indians, the Test series in Australia was a bittersweet cycle of anticipation and suffering. There was something about the long boundaries, the flight of the seagulls every time the ball went into the outfield, the tight cordon, the fast bowlers running all day, the balls whizzing past the batters’ helmets – had he stolen it? All this, accompanied by the frightening animation of a crying duck with a bat tucked under its wing, pulled us out of bed on quilted winter mornings.

From the days of radio featuring the formidable strike force of Dennis Lillee and Geoff Thomson, to the televised exploits of battle-painted Craig McDermott and mustachioed Merv Hughes, to the sheer precision and speed of Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee, Australian speedsters have become part of Test cricket’s romanticism across the Indian ocean. But over time, the music on the chin began to give way to Indian teams ready to stand up and fight back. Be it Sachin Tendulkar in Perth, Sourav Ganguly in Brisbane, Rahul Dravid in Adelaide or VVS Laxman in Sydney, their exploits have begun to match the great Australian players like the Chappells, Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Steve Smith.

India had won five Tests in Australia before 2018, but the hits started coming and this tour changed things. It was Cheteshwar Pujara’s streak – he scored hundreds in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney – four years after Virat Kohli scored four hundreds in 2014-15. India came back in 2021 and won again. This time with a depleted team, but with strong backups. Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, Hanuma Vihari and Mohammed Siraj did the unthinkable – supported, as always, by R Ashwin with bat and ball.

As we begin another series in Perth today, can India make it three in a row? This time the composition is in a transitional state, and the question seems high. The whitewash inflicted by New Zealand weighs heavily on the country’s side. But the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Pant and Gill will be looking to take over the mantle from Kohli and Rohit Sharma and prove that the home series defeat was just a blip; that India came to Australia not to overwork her, but to crush her. So, this morning, Indian fans will wake up again, daring, against all odds, to dream of a hat-trick.