Australia has been outdone by India in every area it has prided itself on, writes Robert Craddock

Australia normally takes for granted it has every base covered in home conditions but it could be headed for one its most humiliating defeats with India outperforming the Aussies in every facet.

Tim Paine could not save Australia’s innings. Picture: Getty Images

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The stirring sight of Pat Cummins sparking an unexpected revival could not mask one chastening, inescapable fact.

Unless the home side can pull off a stunning recovery on Saturday, India will have done an Australia on Australia.

For the first time in history India’s fast men have matched Australia’s in Australian conditions.

Pat Cummins is clapped off after his four-wicket spell late on day three. Picture: Getty

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Normally Australia takes for granted it is the fittest team. The one with the best plans. The toughest players. The boldest selection philosophies. The team which makes cavalier declarations and keeps its nerve under pressure.

Yet India have come up trumps or broken square in all of these categories as they set course for what could be one of the proudest moments in their Test history.

Credit where it is due. There is no sense of luck about India’s highly impressive form.

And no sense of bad luck about a shambolic Australian batting effort where players just lacked the mental steel to trust their fragile techniques shot after shot on an Indian style wicket demanding eternal patience and poise.

In tennis terms, this is a deck where you have to be prepared to slug it shot after shot as if its French clay before you could attempt a winner.

Mitch Marsh rues his dismissal against on the third day. Picture: Getty Images

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This Australian team is brittle in all ways and will lose a lot of Tests but the pain is somehow lessened when you see the courage and class of Cummins shining against the odds. It sends a message “we are still trying.’’

As Australia unravelled at the MCG amid a flurry of dreadful, panic stricken shots, India moved impressively and professionally towards their hearts desire, even though a late Australian comeback made things interesting.

The mighty fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah summed up their professionalism, taking a wicket with a yorker, a slower ball and a bouncer.

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In between his venomous stock ball he more tricks than David Copperfield and his success was richly deserved.

Raised by his mother after his father died of Hepatitis when Jasprit was seven, he typifies the soul of a team whose players have been hardened by the forces of robust lives.

So many small things make up a successful touring team to Australia.

India cut adrift the old days of famously relaxed training sessions by introducing a minimum beep test level for all players, not just in their Test team but their A team as well.

If they don’t pass it they are not selected.

Jasprit Bumrah was a handful for the Aussies. Picture: Getty Images

Diets have changed as well. During a recent tour some Indian journalists chatted to MS Dhoni outside a Sushi place where he had just eaten dinner.

He told them “a few years ago I did not even know what sushi was – now I enjoy it.’’

This Indian team is a product of India’s new confidence as a nation, not simply as the financial powerhouse of world cricket but a centrepoint of the technologicial revolution.

There was a bashfulness about Indian teams that used to tour Australia that is long gone and gone forever.

The swagger of Virat Kohli was unimaginable a couple of decades ago when Indian teams would arrive here expecting to be beaten.

Coach Ravi Shastri has played his part in the new aggressive mantra.

A great admirer of the Australian way and blood and thunder Australian fast bowlers like Jeff Thomson, Shastri was a frequent Australian tourist and a man who believes on looking the world in the eye and making no excuses.

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Originally published as Australia has been outdone by India in every area it has prided itself on, writes Robert Craddock