India vs Australia, 2nd Test at Bengaluru, preview: Wounded Virat Kohli’s team seeks revenge for Pune defeat

Kohli carries his own fire and plays with it. He does not need the opposition to set the match ablaze. He scripts his own luck. He does not wait for the opposition to put a foot wrong. Above all, he thrives under setbacks. He likes to lick his wounds. If anything, a defeat rebukes him to fight back. He is Kohli, after all. He smiles in the faces of danger and flaunts his tattooed muscles.

Kohli scored his first duck at home. A Mitchell Starc delivery that was supposed to angle in held its line and had Kohli caught behind. Starc, for that matter, believes the task will only get tougher despite the 1-0 lead: “There’s six more times we’ve got to get him out to really cement this series. We know he’ll come back bigger and stronger.”

Add Cricket Country as a Preferred Source

The Australia captain, on the other hand, shed more light on India than Kohli: “It’s certainly going to be a difficult next three Test matches. India are a quality side in their own backyard and they are going to come back hard at us.”

Since this is the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, everyone — be it current or former cricketers — wants to opine. Michael Clarke believes batting first is crucial. “In India, the first innings total is critical. If you get a good first innings score of 450 or more, it doesn’t matter who wins the toss. How you bat in the first innings, that dictates the game. So getting more runs in the first innings should be the focus for both teams,” Clarke told India Today TV.

Pitch please

Whether the Pune track was diabolical or sporting one remains a brainer. It had turn for spinners and bounce for pacers. Smith made batting look easy and scored a hundred against all the odds. However, Sudhakar Rao, Secretary of Karnataka State Cricket Association, told The Hindu that he does not want the result before the fifth day: “Our intention is to prepare a sporting, Test-match pitch. We definitely don’t want to see the match end in two and a half days.”

During the pitch report of the first Test, Ravi Shastri said that the track was not watered and looked dry as a result. On the other hand, the Bengaluru track will equally help both batsmen and bowlers. “We like to keep some moisture underneath,” concluded Rao.

Team composition

Despite playing three spinners, India found themselves at the doorstep of defeat. What Steve O’Keefe did was supposed to be triumphed by Ravichandran Ashwin. In all honesty, that is the very evidence of the outcome. O’Keefe took 6 more wickets than Ashwin did, and Australia scored 333 more runs than India did.

This very fact should have opened the door for Usman Khawaja, who has played here during the 2016 World T20 and IPL 9. However, his batting technique has very little to do with the conditions. His aggressive brand of cricket makes it difficult to bet money on him. Perhaps that was why Australia decided to leave out Khawaja once more and announced an unchanged XI. The Marsh brothers survived.

The situation is quite similar for India but in the bowling department. They have uncapped Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav in their armoury. India went into Pune with three spinners, but none of them was a wrist-spinner. That is something they may want to ponder about.

There is little doubt that Ashwin and his partner-in-crime Ravindra Jadeja will do the bulk of bowling, while Umesh Yadav will keep rattling the opposition with his reverse-swing. On the other hand, Jayant Yadav had an ordinary outing scalping only 2 wickets and Ishant Sharma bore no fruit. To add more fuel to the fire, Kohli has not retained the same XI for consecutive Tests ever since he became captain.

Given he goes for horses for courses, Jayant is likely to keep his place. Hence, the question beckons: will Kohli retain the playing XI or drop his pace spearhead Ishant and in favour of Bhuvneshwar Kumar or an extra spinner or even a batsman?

Indian batsmen failing in their own den is a rare sight. However, O’Keefe made that possible, demolishing them with his twin six-fors. The batsman who struggled the most against spinners was Ajinkya Rahane: he inside-edged a few over leg-slip; he was out caught at second slip in the first innings and played in the air in the second.

Rahane was picked ahead of triple-centurion Karun Nair after he came back from a finger injury. However, coach Anil Kumble has no second thoughts about the Mumbaikar’s inclusion: “There is no question of dropping Rahane. He has scored really well, he has been extremely successful over the last couple of years.”

This leaves backup opener Abhinav Mukund. He may as well remain benched, along with Karun and Kuldeep — despite the fact that Ishant may well be left out.

Predictions

Australia believe India will be even more powerful. Kohli believes the same. And so does history.

After being 0-1 down in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy of 2000-2001, India had won the three-Test series 2-1. Led by Sourav Ganguly, India had embarrassingly lost the series opener by 10 wickets. The ‘embarrassing’ factor remains constant in the ongoing series. The margin of 333 runs suggests so. However, India then had gone on to the win the next two tests by 171 runs and 2 wickets respectively.

In a spinner-dominated series, Harbhajan Singh had scalped as many as 32 wickets (28 from the last 2 Tests), also becoming the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Incidentally, Shane Warne had taken more wickets than the Indian spinners in the first Test, just like the first Test of the ongoing series.

Given the home conditions, India are likely to trounce Australia. Given the speed at which Ashwin attains milestones, he is likely to edge past O’Keefe in the wickets column for the ongoing series.

Given that Kohli spawns more venom after being bogged down, Australian bowlers are likely to face his wrath.

Given that India are No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings, the Bengaluru crowd is likely to witness India level the series 1-1.

Nonetheless, Australia were prepared for the worst in the first Test and India did not. They are not the one to squander whatever chances they are offered.

All in all, there will be no margin for error for both teams.

Squads:

India: Virat Kohli (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav.

Australia: Steven Smith (c), Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Steve O’Keefe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson.

Time: 09:30 IST | 04:00 GMT