Australian striker Steve Smith thinks winning a Test series in India over the next few weeks would be more important than beating England in the Ashes this summer.
World No. 1 Australia begin their huge Test cricket year on Thursday by starting a four-Test series against India, who are ranked No. 2 in the world and have not lost a Test series at home since 2012.
After that they will play the Test World Championship final in England, before an away Ashes series begins on June 16.
India, however, is the toughest mission of all, Smith says.
“It’s a tough place to win a Test match, let alone a series,” Smith told cricket.com.au.
“If we could reach the top of this mountain, it would be huge.
“I think if you can win in India it would be bigger than an Ashes series.”
The first of many meetings between the “Big Three”
These days it’s redundant to say that Australia and India will play a great series.
England, India and Australia are the only cricketing countries with enough money to play big series.
Indeed, this four-Test contest will be the smallest Border-Gavaskar trophy in years to come, with teams set to add a fifth game to their future online encounters with their respective series against England.
Meanwhile, the other nine full member nations apparently play as infrequently as possible as part of their Test World Championship obligations.
All of their streaks against each other come down to two games, with the occasional three games if hosted by one of the three wealthy councils.
The rationale is the cost of hosting test matches versus the return of broadcast revenue.
The idea of a centralized fund to offset this cost by diverting excess revenues from rich countries remains dormant.
Test per lap?
So we come to this contest, with two sides stacked with fighters who know each other’s games and personalities inside out.
Smith and Virat Kohli are still the flag bearers for their teams, although neither of them is captain anymore and both are coming back from a productivity slump.
David Warner takes on Rohit Sharma, two aggressive opening bats in the latter parts of their careers, whose games are often said to be more suited to short-form cricket.
The two defied that in testing while being third and fourth on the list for most IPL runs.
Cheteshwar Pujara takes on Usman Khawaja, two stylish players who got some criticism, returned after being sidelined and focused on the Testing Arena.
Their teams rely on them to be the longsetters who sustain the score around them.
Maybe it will be the untested players who will make the difference?
Shreyas Iyer has never played in Australia but has been prolific recently. Suryakumar Yadav has never played a test, but is currently the most exciting bat in the world.
Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Cameron Green have never played in India but Labuschagne these days is pretty much the most important in Australia’s top six and has trained hard against the effects.
Head was weak against this but will counterattack in the form of his life. Green will try to use his massive reach to choke him out.
Pat Cummins will unfortunately fall short of Jasprit Bumrah as the leader of the fast bowling offense, with Bumrah injured.
But India will opt for the experience and quality of Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Jaydev Unadkat, against Australians Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. In reserve are Scott Boland and Lance Morris.
Still, you’d expect the series to be decided by spin.
The interior surfaces of India are most often prepared in this spirit, the recent history of Nagpur, Delhi and Ahmedabad pointing in this direction. Only the Himalayan soil and altitude in Dharamsala could give bowlers a faster influence.
This will be India’s characteristic advantage. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is his country’s second wicket taker.
Longtime partner-in-crime Ravindra Jadeja will look to join him after a long injury hiatus, left-arm orthodox to complete the right, with bigger left-arm Axar Patel as his third weapon.
All three can hit. If wrist rotation is needed, Kuldeep Yadav is behind the scenes.
They offer quality gulf over Australia. Nathan Lyon fits the norm, but the next level of Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson has yet to prove as much. Todd Murphy made the team without having tried.
Perhaps Australia will look back to 2004, when pace quality did the job with a top spinner controlling an end. It would be a punt, but no more than playing on India terms.
“You can’t make a stink that it’s not a nice flat wicket like you might get at the SCG,” Cummins said ahead of the series.
“You have to accept it. You have to be very proactive straight away. You have to have a really, really clear game plan, and literally from the first ball you have to support it.”
The Australians have built a very good team, and the Indians are not at their peak in terms of fitness, form or personnel.
But the history of testing shows that playing away is the biggest challenge, especially for teams traveling to or from Asia.
Overturning this disadvantage is the most prized achievement. Expect another demonstration of why.
