Australia eye unthinkable in India

The fortunes of Australia’s besieged Test team pivoted sharply on the point of a spirited training session conducted on a grey, chill Monday afternoon at Adelaide Oval last November.

That was when the damaged squad that remained from a brutal trouncing at the hands of South Africa joined forces with a gaggle of new boys and began what was forecast to be a long, difficult journey to cricket redemption.

A trip that was many believed might not come close to fruition until the start of the subsequent Australian summer, when the old enemy England arrives to defend the Ashes urn they’ve held since 2015.

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But two months on, Smith’s resurgent group has pocketed four consecutive Test wins, built the nucleus of an outfit that might endure for years and can look forward to next month’s four-Test campaign in India with a genuine prospect of success.

And possibly distantly, eyeing a return to the world’s number one Test ranking while there.

A prospect that would have seemed as laughable as Smith reaching this point of the summer undefeated in all international formats in the aftermath of the first two Tests against South Africa.

"To be honest, it was when we all got together as a group and trained for the first time in Adelaide," Smith said in the wake of Australia’s 220-run win over Pakistan at the SCG that secured a 3-0 series whitewash when asked to identify the season’s turning point.

"Straight away I felt a shift in attitude and energy and enthusiasm among the group and we were able to put that out on to the middle and get the performance we were after.

"We’ve scored big runs in every first innings, we’ve been able to build pressure with the ball, hit good areas and we’ve caught well in this series which has been a big focus of ours."

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When Smith’s team, barely recognisable from the one that celebrated a 3-0 clean sweep with a victory huddle on the SCG in mid-afternoon sunlight, was publicly humiliated inside three days of play by South Africa at Blundstone Arena they were staring at a fast descent down the world rankings.

A third consecutive loss to the Proteas in Adelaide would have consigned them to fifth among the Test playing nations, and was a fundamental reason in the cull that followed the Hobart horror show.

That saw selection chair Rod Marsh hand in his notice, and four new players ushered into the dressing room and three of them (Matthew Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Matthew Wade) shoring up places in the best XI.

But now, as unlikely as it sounds given Australia’s frailties in India over half a century that have become acute in the past decade, Smith’s team can reclaim the number one Test title.

If they can somehow find a way to win at least three of the four Test against India – currently the benchmark in the Test game – and prevent Virat Kohli’s men from posting a victory.

An outcome that remains a distant possibility given Australia has won a solitary Test match in Asia over the past decade (in Sri Lanka in 2011), but is infinitely closer than it appeared eight weeks earlier.

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The national selectors will meet this week to ink in the names for what is expected to be a 16-man touring party for India, and is likely to be named in the middle of this month.

Bupa Support Team Coach and national selector Darren Lehmann confirmed today that spin duo Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe will carry the burden of the bowling for the Tests scheduled for Pune, Bangalore, Ranchi and Dharamsala.

Especially in light of the way Lyon, who has again copped more than his share of scrutiny over the course of this wildly oscillating summer, bowled in the final two Tests against Pakistan in Melbourne and Sydney.

"I thought Nathan was pretty good in Melbourne, and brilliant today," Lehmann said at game’s end this afternoon.

"That’s the best he’s bowled for a long period of time, I think he’ll admit that.

"He bowled well to right and left-handers, bowled over and around, chopped and changed so that was pleasing.

"Sometimes he just gets into one way that he wants to bowl over the wicket all the time, but he was exceptional today and bowled really well.

"I look forward to that combination (Lyon and O’Keefe) going to India."

The make-up of the remainder of the squad is open to speculation.

A mystery compounded by Lehmann’s assertion during an interview with ABC Radio Grandstand prior to play starting in Sydney today that incumbent opener Matthew Renshaw is not guaranteed a start for the India series.

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Even though he landed a career-high 184 in just his fourth Test match at the SCG on the first two days of this Test, and perhaps because fellow left-hander Shaun Marsh has recovered from his fractured finger and is available for a recall.

Having scored one of only two centuries posted on Australia’s previous visit to Asia – the disastrous 0-3 series loss in Sri Lanka last year – to push his claims as one of those ‘subcontinent specialists’ that Smith said in the wake of the Galle Test loss might be the key to future Asian sojourns.

Lehmann clarified those comments somewhat this evening, suggesting that on his current form Renshaw would be in the starting XI but there was always the variable of local conditions and team balance to consider.

"He’s an exceptional young player at 20 (years of age) to make 184," Lehmann said at game’s end.

"It’s a case of what’s the best line-up to win in India and compete, and at the moment you would say ‘yes, he would play’.

"But at the end of the day we have sum up what the conditions are like, what the pitches are like, how we’re going to play, how do we fit everyone into an eleven that’s going to get 20 wickets?"

The other key the Australians cite as they eye India, albeit with a month of limited-overs commitments at home and in New Zealand before they begin that tour, is batting long periods of time.

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England skipper Alastair Cook recently bemoaned his team’s capacity to bat long periods and post huge totals as the single biggest reason for their 4-0 series defeat at the hands of India.

The Australians have already foreshadowed they will begin their preparation for India in the desert kingdom of Dubai where a tough pre-India boot camp will drill into the squad members the need to mentally and physically prepare for lengthy stints in the middle.

With bat and ball, as Lehmann nominated a minimum of 150 overs will be required when batting to post the sort of totals that will place the home team under pressure.

Certainly Smith, who fronted the media at the conclusion of the final home Test of the summer carrying a visage that starkly contrasted with his haunted, confused look in Hobart, has a clear understanding of what awaits.

“We’re under no illusions that it’s going to be tough,” he said of the assignment in India where Australia has won just one Test series since 1969.

“We’re going to have to play some very good cricket if we’re going to compete.

“It’s going to be a great challenge and learning curve for this group, … and the core of this group will take part in India.”

A visit that he must have imagined with wide-eyed terror in the days before that pivotal training session in Adelaide.