The biggest difference between India and Australia at the Adelaide Oval was Mitchell Starc. No one swung the ball as much, and no one questioned the batsman’s technique and resolve as he did, for no one hit as many fuller lengths. He showed India what they lacked – a full-length, a swing metronome, a swing merchant. In the past they were abundant. The missing man of Kapil Dev, Madanlal, Karsan Ghawari, Manoj Prabhakar and more recently Praveen Kumar, who devilishly swung the ball both ways when the conditions were favourable. Kapil and Prabhakar on the 1991-92 tour had a heartwarming memory of a nightmare series teasing and tripping Australia’s top order.
India now has no one like them in their stability. Akash Deep was the closest to them. They obviously missed a trick by not playing him in Adelaide. Bowling full isn’t even his default setting. But he is more adept at it than someone like Harshit Rana. He can swing the ball, skid the ball too. Rana was the perfect choice for the Perth surface, which had bounce and pace. Her length was naturally suited. But Adelaide was different under the lights. India needed someone who could harness the new pink ball movement that had arisen as the twilight began. Akash Deep’s skill-set was better suited to the situation than Rana’s. Moreover, he was India’s most contested fast bowler after Jasprit Bumrah in the domestic season.
But bustling hit-the-deck operators are preferred in most places, except perhaps England. They are workhorses with speed and energy. They are a fail-safe option on most surfaces, only in cases where the ball moves dangerously through the air, humble swing-artists become a deadly proposition. Even if they don’t have Starc’s pace, they can rip through an attack, especially one that is as chaotic as Australia’s. All over the world, they are in acute shortage.
A winning combination is hard to pull off, but the right bowler for the right pitch can make a world of difference. It’s the same folly that India did in the Perth Test in 2018-’19, when they opted for an all-pace attack on a surface that ultimately helped the spinners. India cannot undo the past but can learn from past failures when they reach Brisbane for the next Test.