Australia and India Clash in Adelaide in a Historic Test Match
After a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, Australia and India prepare for a new confrontation at the Adelaide Oval, the same venue where their previous series began in 2018. The image of the scoreboard and the iconic Moreton Bay trees at the north end of the field offer a sense of continuity, an essential element in Test Match cricket, and will serve as a backdrop for the teams led by Tim Paine and Virat Kohli in the first day/night Test for India away from home.
This encounter promises to be more special than any other in the last 20 years, since both cricket powers began an almost constant relationship. The realization of the series itself is an achievement, considering the circumstances.
During the difficult months of March, April and May, when global sport stopped, the possibility of the series not taking place was real. Despite the goodwill existing between Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the challenges were significant.
For CA’s interim chief executive Nick Hockley and chairman Earl Eddings, the biggest hurdle was finding a point of entry for the charter plane carrying the Indian team. Initial plans to land in Perth were amended to Adelaide and then to Brisbane, before Sydney, Canberra, the New South Wales government and the SCG Trust finally secured the venue.
Even after the arrival of the Indians, a Covid outbreak in Adelaide could have disrupted the series. For a long time, the Adelaide Oval was scheduled to host at least one, and possibly two, test matches.
The Adelaide Oval curator, Damian Hough, has had to deal with rock concerts and changes in football matches in the past, but this year he prepared a Test Match pitch with a Christmas parade as a prelude. “One thing we’ve learned with Covid is to be more in the present,” Hough said. “We like to plan months in advance. We still had plans, but we had to live in the moment a little more.”
Practice sessions in the middle of the pitch are a competitive advantage for the Australian players who arrived before those who played for Australia A against the Indians on a different surface at the SCG, something Paine did not hesitate to affirm.It seems increasingly likely that Virat Kohli and Tim Paine will face each other later this year
Paine commented: “We were lucky enough to get to Adelaide early. We trained three nights in a row in the middle of the field at Adelaide Oval, which I think will be a big advantage for our team. It’s the most difficult thing about the pink ball test; you usually get it once a year. Sometimes with a Shield match, this time without one. So you’re learning on the go, in real time, when you go out on the field.”
Kohli’s adaptation, who didn’t even play in the warm-up match at the SCG, will be crucial to the result in Adelaide. Furthermore, this is Kohli’s only test match in the series, making it a unique event before Ajinkya Rahane takes over the leadership in the remaining three matches.
