India vs Australia: Spin on everybody’s mind at Jamtha ahead of first Test

India and Australia have four frontline spinners each in their respective squad for the first two Tests along with a healthy dose of six net bowlers who are spinners for India and an equal amount for the Aussies as well, including a Ravichandran Ashwin lookalike. Add to that a dry pitch at the Jamtha which is in dire need of some gardening. And what you get is a cauldron, a piping hot cauldron ready to serve you the series opener of a potentially riveting Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23.

Australia had their first glimpse of the Jamtha centre wicket at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur after a four-day camp at Alur, Bengaluru to prepare for the potential turning tracks India will have on offer for them for this series. And what they saw would not have been a pretty sight. Adam Gilchrist in the famous, or rather the infamous Nagpur Test of 2004, has said that it was a pleasant surprise to see a green wicket for a series decider. 19 years on, what Pat Cummins saw just two days before the start of the series opener would have not been ‘pleasant’ by any stretch of the imagination.

“I think it will take a bit of spin, particularly the left-arm spinner taking it into our left-handers. There’s a section there that’s quite dry,” was how Steve Smith reacted on how the pitch looked at the media briefing after he had a decent hit out in the middle on Tuesday.

Also Read: Australia have the tools to counter Ashwin, says Smith

If facing up to a Mitchell Starc, Cummins, Josh Hazlewood at the WACA would be trial by fire for any batter, the equivalent for this Jamtha track will be a painful agonising death. And no surprises that the talks have been of India’s temptation to field three out of the four spin bowling options available to them – even all four of them.

But mind you, Australia have a Test bowler with 460 wickets and who is incidentally just six wickets away from 100 wickets against India, and 34 out of that has come in India in only seven Tests. And India do not have their best player of spin in Shreyas Iyer for the first Test.

But how much of that will be a factor, is the question. And will Lyon’s lion-hearted approach be enough for Australia to hold on. He has with him Aston Agar, 29, who has played five Tests, four-Test old Mitchell Swepson, 29, and 22-year-old rookie Todd Murphy with seven First-Class games under his belt.

For India, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have snared up 99 wickets between them against the Aussies in India. Axar Patel averages 12.43 in India and has five five-wicket hauls in eight Tests. Odds being stacked against the Aussies? It’s a Royal Flush against a High Card.

Also Read: India tempted to play three spinners but you never know, says Rahul

Lyon, Swepson and Murphy had their fill at the main ground adjacent to the pitch that will be used for the Test and all this while David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Matt Renshaw, Travis Head, Alex Carey and Peter Handscomb had fill of the spinners at the practice pitches just outside.

Noticed something unique in those list of batters? Five left-handers potentially in the top seven for Australia. Ashwin will be licking his chops and KL Rahul had an inkling that this question would come up in the presser.

“Australia having so many left handers — it will be a challenge for our bowlers. Not many teams have 6-7 left handed batters. Siraj and Ashwin will be excited to have a crack,” he said.

While the seeds of doubt have been sown in the visitors’ mind, India too have a couple of problems to address. Prime being finding an able replacement for Iyer and by the looks of it, it seems more and more Suryakumar Yadav will get his maiden Test cap with Gill likely to sit out to accommodate Rahul, who will retain his spot at the top of the order.

From India’s practice session, the big takeaway was India’s intent. Be it Virat Kohli, Gill, Yadav, Rahul or Rohit there was an intent to counter attack the slow bowlers. Rohit did face a decent amount of pace bowling as well and on few times he got the outside edge. One time he threw his bat in desperation over his head and this is where Australia have their best and possibly only chance to match to India at Nagpur.

The pair of Cummins and Boland, who is most likely to replace an injured Hazelwood, would know that the opening burst is where they can make it count with whatever little will be on offer. The duo alongside the untested Lance Morris were restricted to main ground figuring out the right lengths to bowl.

However, with spin dominating the proceedings and the narratives, pacers were a relegated bunch. While Siraj did his usual rounds, Mohammed Shami gave the second practice day a miss; Well, easy to understand why — there’s only spin in everybody’s mind at the Jamtha.

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