How skillful India gaslighted Australia

Neither is cricket always played on the field, nor is it only a thing of the mind. The truth lies somewhere in between, and India have learnt to exploit that grey area when at home.

Saturday’s result may be a victory by an innings and 132 runs over Australia in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the VCA stadium, but what’s truly commendable is the way in which the Indian management gaslighted Australia.

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Coming into this series after 12 months of solid run, including successful series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the subcontinent, Australia looked a relaxed bunch during the preparatory camp in Alur, Bengaluru.

There was a bit of a hiccup because the curators had presented the visitors with a green pitch for tour matches. It certainly wasn’t the kind of surface Australia would encounter during the Tests so they took it upon themselves to scuff it up as best they could.

Confident still, they arrived in Nagpur on February 6 night. The following morning they caught sight of the pitch, it looked alright for the moment, but by February 8 evening, it was shaved down to the clay.

Also, there happened to be a large rough spot on the right. The Australians claimed the pitch was ‘doctored’ to assist the Indian spinners against the six left-handers in their batting line-up.

They hovered over it, they studied every crack, Steven Smith even put on sunglasses to establish the difference in hues…and this is where Pat Cummins and his men lost the Test.

Not to say R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom finished with fifers in the match, didn’t bowl like the champions they are to pick up 15 of the 20 available wickets, but a look at the way in which the Australian batters shaped up, you could tell it had more to do with their mindset than it did with technique.

After all, the same pitch was provided to the Indians and they went on to put up 400 runs courtesy of Rohit Sharma, Jadeja and Axar.

So, the pitch was not the problem. It just so happens that the Indians were winning at chess while the Australians were losing at checkers.