Rivals reverse roles for Sydney Test

In the four years it’s taken to complete a full revolution of Virat Kohli’s Test captaincy tenure, the change in fortunes for both India and Australia have been as stark as they are surprising.

It was at the SCG, for the final Test of India’s previous campaign in Australia during the summer of 2014-15, that Kohli inherited the top job following his predecessor M.S. Dhoni’s sudden decision to quit the long-form game.

That bombshell dropped in the midst of a four-Test assignment that India ultimately lost 2-0, saw Kohli’s team soon slump to seventh on the ICC world rankings – rated ahead of only the West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Even more sobering for the world’s wealthiest and most fanatical cricket nation was confirmation that not a single India batter or bowler was listed in the individual top-10 rankings at Test level.

Having reclaimed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy surrendered through the disastrous ‘homework’ series in 2013, Australia were contrastingly buoyant at that point.

Image Id: 3AF54670E8C6401ABE1754225D9F1789 Image Caption: Australia celebrates their 2014-15 series triumph over India // Getty

Although ranked marginally below Test champion South Africa, the emergence of a captain-in-waiting (Steve Smith) due to the injury that sidelined Michael Clarke for much of that 2014-15 summer suggested the future was as rosy as the present.

A thesis built upon Smith (number four) and ninth-ranked David Warner’s presence among the world’s top-10 batters, and a similarly dominant bowling outfit led by Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson, both listed among the game’s top five.

Kohli today fronted the media on Test-eve – in the same SCG basement room where he had made his first appearance as Test captain designate while the shock of Dhoni’s announcement continued to resonate – and surveyed a very different scene.

India sit as clear leaders atop the Test table, while their opponents for the fourth Domain Series match starting tomorrow sit uncomfortably fifth.

Kohli is the world’s best batter and his teammate Cheteshwar Pujara is ranked fourth, while spinners Ravindra Jadeja (six) and Ravi Ashwin (eight) are among the top echelon of bowlers.

And if his men can prevent their hosts winning in Sydney to level the Domain Series 2-2, Kohli will create history as the first India Test captain to subjugate Australia on their own patch after 70 years of trying.

True to the obsession that he spoke about after India’s win in Melbourne earlier this week, Kohli is reluctant to quantify the significance of a series win in Australia lest he run the risk of lifting his eyes from the upcoming contest to the waiting prize.

But he understands acutely the symbolism of completing that dream at the venue where his vision to revive India’s Test team began and, by noting the time, effort and patience it’s taken to get there, unintentionally offers some solace for his opponents in the process.

“It's only been four years,” Kohli said of the journey from also-rans among Test nations to achieving a triumph that has eluded every previous generation of India touring teams.

“If it happens, great, because I have come here the third time now on a Test tour and I understand how difficult it is to win here.

“It would definitely be a big, big series win, not just for me but for the whole team, purely because of the fact this is the place where we started our transition.

“This particular venue is when M.S. (Dhoni) gave up captaincy and we had a totally young side starting at number six or seven in the world, and we come back here as the number one Test side in the world.

“And we want to be able to take that legacy forward and just play the kind of cricket that we've played in this series, which has been exciting for the people to watch and for both teams competing in it as well, which I think is the most important thing.”

Image Id: 76CCECE3E7194B2C9FB7BCB56EC1BBA4 Image Caption: Kohli celebrates his century at the SCG in 2015 // Getty

The comfort that Kohli’s words might offer to Australia captain Tim Paine come not from his reluctance to speculate on a series win, but rather his captaincy counterpart’s acknowledgement that turning around Test fortunes is not an overnight venture.

The scene confronting Paine is hauntingly similar to that Kohli encountered upon taking over perhaps the most scrutinised position in world cricket, having served a one-Test apprenticeship (when Dhoni was rested from the 2014-15 campaign opener).

Australia’s ranking has steadily slipped, with its premium batters and bowlers from four summers ago missing through suspension (Smith and Warner) or retirement (Johnson and Harris).

The banned duo remain the only Australians among the world’s 10-best batters, and Pat Cummins is the only bowler ranked in that company for the bowlers.

But there is symmetry in the personnel turnover within the two teams since they played out a draw – that featured centuries from Smith, Warner and Kohli – at the SCG four years ago.

If India can’t find a place in their starting XI for opener K.L. Rahul (dumped for the previous Test), and spinner Ashwin (who missed past two Tests with a side strain), they will boast just three players from the 2015 Test in Sydney – Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Shami.

Despite being a transitional team undergoing an unforeseen revamp, Australia has four surviving members from that match – Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood – with Smith and Warner eligible for return within three months.

It therefore makes the rebuild taking place under Paine’s leadership appear a little less daunting, given the resources available to India to complete such a task that has taken them four years to reach its zenith.

Paine admitted today that, even though his team had scored a stirring win against the world’s best team in Perth last month, they undeniably remained “a work in progress”.

“The difficult thing after Perth was more the external stuff, for a younger group - we had gone from a team that was no good to all of a sudden really good, and then we were back down here (after last week’s loss in Melbourne),” Paine said.

“So it is about trying to keep a bit of perspective, a reality about where we are at … but the main thing for us is that we are improving.

“I think we are showing signs of getting better, I think in the last Test while our batters didn't set the world on fire most guys got a start and showed that they can succeed at this level.

“So this Test, there is going to be a real focus from our batting group.

“We know we are not going to win too many Test matches without scoring hundreds, and that's something that we have spoken about and something we are really keen to improve and address.

“The silver lining is that, in a few Tests time, we have some world-class players available and we are going to have some younger guys with 8-10 Tests under their belt so, it is going to be a great thing for Australian cricket.

“Obviously we want to pick the best XI that we think can win this Test.

“But at the same time, you're trying to look forward a little bit and make sure you have the right guys around the squad and in our group who we think can be successful across different conditions in Test cricket.

“There's always going to be a little bit of a balancing act.”

According to the ICC’s World Test Championship program released last year, India are due to return to Australia for another four Tests just two years from now, in the summer of 2020-21.

Australia’s Test team and its supporters will have far greater clarity on the success of their reboot when that series comes around.

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: India won by 137 runs

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar