VISAKHAPATNAM: Cape Town? Win. Chennai? Win. Melbourne? Win. Visakhapatnam?
India knows this drill. They know the question so well the last three times it was put to them, they answered it with big Ws. For a side that doesn't lose many bilateral series, they have ceded ground at the first of asking multiple times. Since the series in Australia at the end of 2020, they have lost the opening Test thrice. They ended up winning the series on all three occasions.
It isn't dissimilar on home turf. They have ended up losing or drawing the opening Test of a series five times since 2016. The run began with England showed stiff resistance in Rajkot. Australia overturned the hosts at Pune in 2017. Sri Lanka held out at Eden Gardens later that year. The Black Caps drew a match with one wicket remaining in Kanpur in 2020 before Joe Root's men condemned Virat Kohli & Co. in Chennai a few months later.
The common theme that links all five games? The hosts won each of the five games that followed to either consolidate their position or come back into the series. It's what makes them such dangerous opponents at home. Producing one near perfect Test high on luck is what's needed to go in front. But teams need to produce the same sort of match twice in succession to even get close to them in these conditions. Consider this. Somebody has to bat like Ollie Pope, bowl like Tom Hartley while ensuring there are good starts to both innings. They should also hope the hosts spurn multiple opportunities to close the match. Invariably, all of them have failed because the natural order of the universe has been restored.
In a one-off match, randomness and luck can play a big role. Over a series, though, the stronger inevitably rises to the top. Even somebody like KS Bharat, yet to make his first-class debut the last time the hosts lost a series at home, knows this. "The atmosphere is relaxed," the local boy said in the pre-match press conference. "They (management) told us not to panic and we are not. The instructions are very clear. We have played a lot of series like this in the past. As individuals, we have to focus on good things. Everything is chill and relaxed."
Saying that, India have never been challenged like this at home. They are used to their spinners holding sway, like traffic cops at an intersection. Vehicles respect the stop sign. In Hyderabad, though, lawlessness took over and indiscipline reigned. A significant part of the last few days have been spent on coming up with plans to counter the tourists' intent. They have also spent quality time on working out what's wrong with Shubman Gill. In public, the support staff have continued to back the No. 3. In private — at least in practice sessions — Gill has picked the brains of multiple elders in the contingent. All three of Vikram Rathour (batting coach), Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid have had words of advice for the 24-year-old. There was some clamour to drop him for the second Test but that was never going to happen, even before the injuries. "There are young batters in our team who have not played much Test cricket," Rathore had said on Wednesday. "So, we need to be a bit patient with them. Batters like (Shubman) Gill, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and (Shreyas) Iyer will eventually start getting big runs, I'm sure of it."
Add in Rajat Patidar (barring any last-minute decisions, the MP lad will debut) and it's a squad with not much batting experience at this level. It's effectively why there was a level of moisture on the surface on Wednesday, two days out from the Test. They don't want it to break too soon.
Inexperience, though, can't be an excuse. Especially not when the three main opposition spinners have three caps between them. Whenever the chips have been down in recent times — going back more than a decade — the hosts have raged. They have raged against the dying of light to keep alive a very proud home record. Otherwise, there might be a new answer next to the question mark.
Squad:
India (probable XI): Rohit, Yashasvi, Gill, Patidar, Shreyas, Axar, Bharat, Washington/Siraj, Ashwin, Kuldeep, Bumrah.
England (announced XI): Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Foakes, Hartley, Ahmed, Bashir, Anderson.
