Kohli, Ashwin in spotlight as mercury soars in Adelaide
India captain expected to extend SA and England form; onus on off-spinner to deliver
ADELAIDE: It’s not like Glenn McGrath, who used to intimidate the opposition by picking his big victim for the series and predict the scoreline during Australia’s pomp. This team though is reeling from attacks within on its over-aggressive culture, and is unsure how its batting unit will fare against India’s potent pace attack without the banned Steve Smith and David Warner.
But as India build-up for the first Test starting on Thursday, Australia players are clear who to target — India skipper Virat Kohli — while trying their best not to sound provocative like old.
A day after skipper Tim Paine said his players would engage Kohli in verbals selectively, his deputy and fast bowler, Josh Hazlewood, added to the mind games by saying getting their skipper early would rattle India.
Kohli undoubtedly is the key. Apart from his great record in Australia, in the last two away Test series in South Africa (1-2) and England (1-4), he was way ahead of other batsmen. He scored 38.6 percent of the runs from the top six in South Africa and 32.32 percent in England.
“I see the Indian line up as the best in the world, if not right up there, led by Virat. They feed a lot off him and how he goes about things,” Hazlewood said on Monday. “They’ve played a lot at home since we played them last in Australia. They toured England and South Africa, and it was only Virat who stood out. A lot of the others haven’t scored too many of the runs.
“We’ll obviously have a chat about him before the game starts. We’ll come up with a couple of options. It’s about what conditions suit, with a player of that calibre you need a few options.”
The hosts are wary of sledging Kohli. “Virat obviously thrives on that sort of stuff. It gets him going and he probably plays his best cricket when he’s doing that. It’s up to the individual -- if it’s a bowler or a fielder. I am usually pretty quiet when I am bowling.
“If we can get on top of them early, hopefully that will filter through the rest of the Test.”
›I always say he is a clever bowler, he reads the batsmen really well... he has made a lot of changes. On R Ashwin’s preparation
› Virat obviously thrives on that sort of stuff. It gets him going and he probably plays his best when he’s doing that. On how sledging gets Virat going
ASHWIN FACTOR
India No 3 Cheteshwar Pujara will acknowledge the rest of the batsmen must step up to end the ‘Virat and others’ chat. On the rest day on Monday, at a venue where a sensational chase led by Kohli last time fell agonisingly short, the focus was on off-spinner R Ashwin, who didn’t find a place in that game and saw opposite number Nathan Lyon capture 12 wickets to clinch the match.
However, Ashwin has much to prove. He averages 25.44 for his 336 career wickets, but his 21 wickets from six Tests over two visits to Australia have gone for 54.71 runs apiece. Pujara is confident Ashwin will deliver this time.
“I always say he is a clever bowler, he reads the batsmen really well... he has made a lot of changes. I can’t describe what it is... But he has made some adjustments which has helped him. He has played enough cricket in England, which is different conditions, not much help for the spinner. So I think when he’s playing in Australia, he knows what he has to do.”
Ashwin took an expensive 2-122 against Cricket Australia XI in the warmup game. Pujara backed the bowlers. “Conceding 500 runs in a warm-up game doesn’t mean anything ... we are not very much worried about it. Our bowlers know what line and lengths to bowl in Australia.”
India are yet to win a series in Australia in 11 attempts and Pujara said breaking that drought was a large motivation. “Being the No 1 Test team, we always look to win each and every series and this is no different. We definitely want to win the series, but one Test at a time.”