The Adelaide debacle of 2020 is history now but it should be at the back of players’ minds when they take the field in the day/night Test against Australia, reckons Ravi Shastri, who was India’s coach in that series.
India, under Virat Kohli, were shot out for their lowest-ever Test total of 36 in the second innings of the Adelaide Test that Australia won by eight wickets.
Bruised and battered, and with hardly anyone giving them a revival chance, India staged a remarkable comeback to win the four-Test series 2-1 to clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“I don’t think it (Adelaide drubbing) will play any role but it should be at the back of their mind because you know things happen very quickly with a pink ball,” Shastri, who was the coach of the India team during the series, told The ICC Review.
A 1-0 lead in pocket, India will clash with the hosts in the second Test, starting Friday.
“You realise that in a session of play, if things don’t go your way and the bowling is good, things can happen rapidly.” Shastri added that India’s defeat in the match was a freak thing and that he had not seen so many nicks flying to the fielders in his four decades of cricket.
“What we did after that 36 was — like I said at that time — that I’d never seen, and I said it in the dressing room, I’d never seen so much of playing and nicking as opposed to playing and missing.
“And I’d watched cricket for about 40 years. And to be honest, that was a session where hardly any player played and missed. If he did anything, he got a nick. So it was not beating the bat. You know, the bowlers (being) unlucky… it was just the batsmen being unlucky on that day.”
The legendary all-rounder added that the 1-0 lead in the ongoing series should act as a catalyst for India to further tighten their grip on the hosts, who he felt were under pressure.
“Now the fact that they are one-up, should put them in a really great frame of mind going ahead in this Test match because I think it’s a massive opportunity for India to tighten the screws further. The pressure will be on Australia.”
“In my mind, it was very clear you can’t do worse than that (Adelaide). You’ll have a day when the luck is in your favour and you can bounce back. And that’s exactly what happened.
“Sometimes you don’t over-think when something as drastic as that happens. You don’t want a knee-jerk reaction taking place where you just lose the plot. Sometimes calmness in situations like that produce the best results.”
India went on to level the series in Melbourne and followed it up with a fighting draw in Sydney. The injury-ravaged visitors, under Ajinkya Rahane, then pulled off a sensational victory in Brisbane to secure a historic series win.