Once- confident India have a series of questions to answer

INDIA are now officially a team on a tightrope. The big question is what do they do next?

One false move and the Border- Gavaskar Trophy – one of the few in world cricket that actually matters – will be out of their reach.

Steve Smith’s team’s stunning first Test win effectively makes the scoreline Australia 1.5, India 0 because Australia are the trophy holders and India must finish a Test up to snatch it back.

If this suddenly buoyant Australian side wins any of the last three Tests it will retain the trophy.

If it draws just one match India must win the other two.

Even a drawn series would be a spectacular achievement by Australia. All of India would cringe at the sight of Smith being presented with the trophy after the fourth Test if the series was split, say 1- 1.

India were so confident of success in this series that even before a ball had been bowled they decreed their squad for the first Test would be retained for the second.

Dangerous move. Already they appear to have two bowl- ers – fast man Ishant Sharma and spinner Jayant Yadav – who look spare parts.

But the big issue is what type of wicket the Indians will prepare for the second Test in Bangalore.

Here’s the catch. If they prepare another surface- ofthe- moon deck and lose the toss again their trophy hopes could vaporise before the halfway point in the series.

So the temptation is to produce an “in- between’’ wicket which takes some turn but not the roulette wheel spin of Pune which neutralised India’s slow bowling advantage.

But if they do this they run the risk of a drawn match. That would mean they have to win the last two, a huge ask.

Australia’s Pune victory – particularly the size of it – ranks with any of the modern era. Imagine if, before the game, some Nostradamus had told you one team would be bowled out for 105 and 107 and lose by 333 runs.

The revelation that this team was India would have given you reason to fall face first into your breakfast cereal.

The joy of Steve O’Keefe’s 12- wicket haul is that it spotlights the worth of the honest craftsman.