Australia vs India: Cricket match in Adelaide, a respite after a chaotic year

Australia and India face off at Adelaide Oval in a Day/Night Test

At the end of a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, Australia and India find themselves again at the Adelaide Oval, the same venue where their previous encounter began in 2018. The familiar sight of the scoreboard and the Moreton Bay trees at the north end of the field offer a sense of continuity intrinsic to test cricket, and will be a striking backdrop for Tim Paine and Virat Kohli’s teams in the first day/night Test for the Indian team away from home. This encounter between two of cricket’s most powerful nations promises to be memorable, surpassing even the previous clashes they have held over the last two decades. The series itself represents an achievement, considering the circumstances. Since 1999, India and Australia have contested 12 test series, a number similar to the Ashes series that Australia has had against England in the same period. Participants and spectators have faced moments of uncertainty about the realization of this series, especially during the critical months of March, April and May, when the sporting world was severely affected. Cricket Australia (CA) has expressed its gratitude for the collaboration of the administrators and players of India, who did not generate major inconveniences for the realization of the tour. The challenges for the interim CEO of CA, Nick Hockley, and the president Earl Eddings, focused on finding a suitable port of entry for the charter plane carrying the visiting team. The initial landing plans in Perth were modified, moving to Adelaide, then to Brisbane, before finally being defined in Sydney, Canberra, the New South Wales government, and the SCG Trust. Negotiations with the Queensland government generated a high level of anxiety. Even after the arrival of the Indians, there was a possibility that a Covid outbreak in Adelaide would alter the series. For a time, the Adelaide Oval was scheduled to host at least one Test, and possibly two, due to the prolonged lockdown in Melbourne. However, an outbreak in South Australia forced contingency measures to be implemented, considering the possibility of starting the Test series with a day/night Test at the MCG and then continuing with a more traditional game from December 26th. Adelaide Oval curator Damian Hough, who has managed rock concerts and changes to the football schedule, has prepared a test pitch with a Christmas parade as a prelude. “One thing we’ve learned with Covid is to live more in the present,” said Hough. “We like to plan months in advance. We still had plans, but we had to live in the moment a little more,” he added. “We were lucky enough to be able to give Australia a training session in the center of the court on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so that was our only preparation, and it seemed to go very well, the comments were positive. We have the recipe that seems to work… we are just sticking to the game plan.” The training sessions in the center of the court represent an invaluable competitive advantage for the members of the Australian team who arrived before those who played for Australia A against the Indians on a different surface at the SCG, something that Paine did not hesitate to affirm.

Virat Kohli and Tim Paine could face each other.Paine commented: “We’ve been very lucky to get to Adelaide early. We trained three nights in a row in the middle of the pitch at Adelaide Oval, which I think will be a big advantage for our team. It’s the most difficult thing about the Test with the pink ball; you usually have it once a year. Sometimes with a Shield game, this time without one. So you’re practically learning on the go, in real time, when you go out on the field.” “To try to adapt to conditions that are so strange to us, with the lights on and a pink ball. So it’s strange. But we have managed to have three nights in the center of the court at the Adelaide Oval, which has been fantastic for our group, batsmen and bowlers, to get an idea of what it’s like again. Refresh your memory from last year, it will be a great advantage for us tomorrow.” Kohli’s adaptation, who did not participate in the warm-up match at the SCG, will be crucial to the result in Adelaide. It will be accentuated by the fact that this is Kohli’s only Test match in the series, making it a unique event before Ajinkya Rahane takes over the captaincy in the remaining three matches. With players like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon, the Australians have succeeded in getting Kohli out early in each of the previous two series. However, once past that phase, Kohli has proven capable of damaging even the most formidable attack.

“Everyone has big plans to get the best players out, don’t they? But that’s the reason they’re the best, they can adapt, they can change with what you’re doing, and Virat is certainly one of the best players, if not the best player in the world,” Paine said. “There will be a time in this, in fact there’s only one test, so I hope not, but when you play against players as good as Virat, sometimes they get away from you, that’s the game.”

Tim Paine

“But we certainly have implemented plans that have worked well against him in the past; hopefully they work early enough this week, but if not, yes, we have a couple of different plans. The good thing about our attack is that they’re all different, we also have Nathan Lyon and now you bowl Greeny, we have some different angles, some different speeds and obviously Nathan’s spin, as well as Marnus, so we have a lot of different options to bowl at him if he were to come in and settle.” There is something refreshing about tactical discussions and plans on the eve of a test series, rather than the Covid protocols, border restrictions and financial shocks of the year to date. Paine, who cherishes his test career more than most after being a couple of phone calls away from retiring from cricket altogether in 2017, had no idea of “bubble fatigue” at this point, when asked if such considerations might shorten what remains of his time at the top of the game. “Absolutely not. I love it, to be honest,” Paine said. “I don’t think this hub has been as strict as maybe the IPL or the one in England. I’m sleeping really well; my kids are at home, which is good in a way, but I certainly miss them. But I sleep better here and feel fresher here than at home, so bubble life might make me play longer in any case.” The events of 2020 have ensured that this last chapter is as vivid as any sporting competition, while many around the world remain confined by a pandemic.