India v Australia: Underdogs brace for India bite

PUNE: When was the last time an Australian cricket captain accepted the tag of `underdogs', and actually felt comfortable with it?

Back in 1984, a teary-eyed Kim Hughes had walked out of a press conference, overwhelmed by emotion after announcing his resignation as captain. That was a critical moment in Australian cricket.It proved to be the cornerstone from which the team made a remarkable turnaround, first winning the World Cup and then going on to dominate world cricket.

Down Under, they don't concede or accept defeat easily. They play their cricket hard and a captain rarely doffs his hat to the opposition. So, when Steve Smith, the incumbent, speaks about India in glowing terms and undercuts his own men's chances, it's not just a departure from the mental-disintegration tactics employed by his predecessors. It seems out of sync with the Australian psyche.

“Yes, I guess we are the underdogs in this series,“ Smith said on the eve of the first Test at the MCA stadium on Wednesday . “You hear comments (from) Harbhajan who expects us to lose 4-0. That's not how we feel. We want to compete here against India.It's going to be a tough series, they've got some quality players in their line-up from 1 to 11. But I guess what I want to see from my boys is the ability to adapt to the plans we have in place, show some fight and resilience in tough situations.There are going to be difficult moments. Hopefully, we can have the skills in place and plans in place and mindsets in place to counteract those difficult moments.“

Even Smith's counterpart, Virat Kohli, felt England, with the kind of experience they carried, were a tougher proposition in comparison. The Indians, who are on a roll this home season, will benefit from the lessons learnt in the campaign against Alastair Cook's side. “England was a very tough series. To start off with a draw, which was not a convincing draw from our side, from there on we turned things around,“ Kohli said.“That took a lot of character. The team is in a different mind space ever since that first game in Rajkot.

“We learnt that if we had sustained pressure maintained on the opposition for long enough, specially in these conditions, it will get difficult for them. And that's something we focused on and we are going to focus on now as well,“ Kohli said.

The Indians are on a roll but they know the series opener, being played on a maiden venue, will be crucial. The pitch is expected to be a slow turner, with probably low bounce. A few Ranji Trophy matches in the past have seen `result' pitches but those were during the winter, with the morning dew providing just about enough juice in the first session.

The dry conditions mean a three-spin attack from the Indians is a probability while the Aussies could go for two seamers and two slower bowlers. Smith's stint with Pune in the IPL too will be useful.