India’s fear of failure a weapon Steve Smith can use to bounce Virat Kohli off his perch

IF AUSTRALIA can weaponsie India’s fear of failure on home soil in the decisive Test of an incredible series in Dharamsala, a young side will come of age.

Virat Kohli has the weigh of expectations on his dodgy shoulder going in to the deciding Test of an incredible series.

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THE last time India was handed a bouncy pitch in a deciding Test against Australia a player ended up rushing to the toilet.

Not, for once, an Australian, but India’s star spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Harbhajan and Indian captain Sourav Ganguly walked out together to view a green pitch tossed in their face by a contrary groundsman in Nagpur in 2004 and stood with hands on hips in a state of abject bewilderment and despair.

As he walked back the dressingroom after his match eve inspection, Ganguly’s limp from a minor muscle niggle was much more pronounced than it was on the way to the wicket.

Harbhajan later rang management from his hotel room to report he had been struck down by a sudden and crippling dose of food poisoning.

Both pulled out of the game and Australia won the series.

Rumours have endured over the years that Harbhajan’s mysterious condition may have been an acute dose of “green fever’’.

Australian players celebrate their 2004 series-winning victory in Nagpur.

What it did spell out was the crushing pressure that rides with India to deliver on home soil.

The fear of failure is as powerful as the drive to succeed and Australia can exploit the blow torch that is blazing on India on Saturday, especially if the pitch delivers the bounce that the curator has tipped and that it has so far this season.

If coach Darren Lehmann could give his team just seven words of advice for the match they might be “make sure you stay in the contest’’.

If they can do this the temperature will rise in the Indian dressingroom like a boiling saucepan and eventually the lid might simply just blow off because this Indian team has no excuse to lose.

Imagine if, after all of his theatrical sniping, Virat Kohli has to stand at the presentation dais in six days time and watch Steve Smith accept the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Kohli has much to ponder with Australia a win away from an improbable series victory.

It would mean a team who had lost one of their past 20 home series would have been dethroned by one with five players who have played fewer than 10 Tests.

Extraordinary.

Cricket barely ever works that way, especially in India and more especially in a four-Test series in which the crowd, the heat, the wickets, everything, have turned many an iron-willed Test tourist into a jibbering, homesick wreck.

This has been an inspiring series for Australia, one which underlines how powerful it can be when a team pulling in the one direction can chip in when it matters.

Apart from Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell, no Australian has made more than 72 in an innings, yet apart from David Warner and Mitchell Marsh, the top order have combined to sprinkle a spoonful of stardust when it mattered.

Matt Renshaw has faced at least 50 balls in every innings bar one, which has been crucial given David Warner’s failures.

Shaun Marsh has averaged just 24 yet his one half century saved a Test.

The batting numbers, Steve Smith apart, don’t take the breath away but in a way Australia can wear that as a badge of honour for a team who can hold their heads high no matter what fate awaits them in the final Test.

Originally published as India’s fear of failure a weapon Steve Smith can use to bounce Virat Kohli off his perch