India v Australia, 3rd Test, Ranchi - Preview
As the crow flies, if it can fly that far, Ranchi is 325 kilometres from Kolkata. The Jharkhand capital is so far removed otherwise from the capital of West Bengal that they could be thousands of miles apart. Where the City of Joy is all about bustling energy and crowded streets, chaotic traffic and decrepit buildings, this neck of the woods is a lot more relaxed, a lot less frenetic, and plentiful in verdant greenery even right bang in the middle of the city.
Kolkata is a cricketing haven, the Eden Gardens the theatre of many a dream, the stage where extraordinary scripts have been enacted with exemplary finesse by exceptional individuals. Ranchi is more of a cricketing newbie, owing its place on the map of the sport only because of one remarkable individual who answers to the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Dhoni won’t be on hand to watch Test cricket arrive at the city simply known as Dhoni-land, at a venue in whose development he has had such a hands-on role to play. The JSCA International Stadium doesn’t have the aura and the mystique of the Eden Gardens, but for five days – hopefully – starting Thursday (March 16), the eyes of the cricketing world will be trained unblinkingly on the goings-on here.
As India and Australia dusted off recent cobwebs owing to a week-long break and got down to the serious business of topping up preparations on Wednesday, the events of 16 years back at the Eden Gardens would have been farthest from their minds. It was on this date, March 15, that India completed a stunning turnaround with a magical triumph on a sensational final day in front of heaving, throbbing, ululating fans. The finishing touches to the comeback fashioned by VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid were applied by Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar, driving an entire nation to frenzied celebration and turning the world cricketing order upside down.
For the focus to return to cricket, something Virat Kohli and Steven Smith have both stressed, after the controversies of Bangalore, this Test will require cricket of the highest quality.
Smith has made it clear that he and his teammates believe the surface will start to break up from day two, and that the bounce will put ankles more than chests in danger. The hasty beeline the entire squad made to the middle soon after arriving at the ground in the afternoon suggested how much the deck is playing on their minds, as it will be on the Indian minds too, one is sure.
Outplayed in Pune and behind the eight-ball for the first two days in Bangalore, India dug deep to unearth heroes in another indication of why it is the No. 1-ranked Test team. The heroes were familiar, dependable old hands in Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane with the bat, and the battle-weary but fresh-in-the-mind R Ashwin with the ball. Consequently, an 87-run first-innings deficit was overturned into a 75-run series-equalling victory, and the wresting of the momentum ahead of the week-long break that would have given both sets of players the time to ponder over where to go from there.
It is unlikely that the ball-dominating-bat theme will alter significantly here. When Shyam Bahadur Singh, the curator, banged in a cricket ball at various parts of the business areas of the pitch on Tuesday, you could clearly make out that the bounce was anything but considerable. It was the low bounce as much as anything that did Australia in in the fourth innings in Bangalore; should Kohli win the toss in Australia’s 800th Test match, it won’t be long before the gremlins of self-doubt start to gnaw away at a side that is looking at two enforced changes, at the very minimum.
Of the two Mitchells they have lost through injury, there are no prizes for guessing which one Australia will miss more. Marsh was no more than a bit player with the ball and fleeting with the bat; Starc was positively towering in both departments, providing the cutting edge that Steve O’Keefe in Pune and Nathan Lyon in Bangalore could feed off.
Somewhat of a subcontinent expert whose speed through the air takes the slowness of the surface out of the equation, Starc has forced Australia to turn to Pat Cummins, still only 23 but with a body ravaged through multiple injuries. Cummins has looked in fine fettle since joining the team last weekend, and is pretty much a shoo-in for his first Test appearance since his debut in November 2011, given Australia’s penchant for pace. Who lines up instead of Marsh will be interesting – will Smith go with the explosive but underachieving Glenn Maxwell who can also bowl offspin, or will he turn to Marcus Stoinis, Marsh’s replacement in the squad whose seam-up is an extra string?
India will have some calls of its own to make. M Vijay batted in the nets on Wednesday and should in all probability play his 50th Test – after the false start in Bangalore – at the expense of Abhinav Mukund, his fellow Tamil Nadu opener. Vijay has had discomfiture in his left shoulder, an injury that doesn’t allow him to play the sweep with any freedom, but he is too much of an all-round batsman to be handicapped by the temporary loss of one stroke.
The more tricky decision could be whether to stick with Karun Nair as the sixth batsman, or bring in an additional spin option in Jayant Yadav, who also made a Test century in his second last Test. If the think-tank holds the same Smith belief that the pitch will crumble sooner rather than later, then the extra batsman will come in handy.
Teams (from):
India: M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund.
Australia: David Warner, Matt Renshaw, Steven Smith (capt), Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Steve O’Keefe, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Glenn Maxwell, Usman Khawaja, Jackson Bird, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson.
