CHENNAI: ‘Yugon kee ladai (Battle for the ages)’ reads the screengrab of Tuesday’s newspaper front page with a massive portrait of Virat Kohli in the middle. One might assume that it’s a regional Hindi daily from India, but it’s not.
From The Daily Telegraph to The Australian to The Courier-Mail, it’s the page one of almost every print subsidiary owned by News Corp Australia. Yes, you read that right. As you skim through this one here, every single person in Australia will be greeted with a front page that reads in Hindi.
If there ever was a scale to measure the popularity of an Indian Summer Down Under, this should be it. It’s not just about cricket, the sport, but what an Indian tour brings to the table. A fierce rivalry, a dominance that has led to back-to-back defeats for the home side across eight years. And of course, the revenue and attention that comes with every Indian visit.
This Australian summer, it all seems to have gone up a notch. After all, the last time Australia beat India in a Test series was more than a decade ago.
This time, however, they smell blood. India are coming off a historic 0-3 defeat against New Zealand at home and in all likelihood, they will miss the services of their captain Rohit Sharma in the very first match in Perth.
Understandably, one can expect them to feel the heat come November 22. In fact, head coach Gautam Gambhir would have felt a little bit of it already while addressing the media before leaving for Australia on Monday.
Since the loss against New Zealand on Day 3 in Mumbai, the team management has had a review meeting with the BCCI top brass with questions over selections, pitches and team combinations. It is not the kind of start Gambhir expected for his coaching tenure with the Indian team.
On Monday, from form of seniors Rohit and Virat Kohli to Harshit Rana not joining the India A team to Nitish K Reddy being groomed as a seam-bowling all-rounder, transition of the team to hunger of the veterans, Gambhir had to tackle some tough questions. And the former India opener and captain handled it in his usual way, giving the necessary clarity for direct queries while resorting to platitudes on occasions.
