Indian Test tour: Gap between Aussies and India will get wider as major hoodoo looms

Critics who complain that the Australian team failed to implement the successful strategy of the 2004 India tour champions - are ignoring cricket’s new reality writes Robert Craddock.

Australia has won one Test series in India in 53 years and the chastening news is the gap is getting wider.

For all the cheek Australia gave at times in the first two Tests the bottom line was that both ended in three day defeats and Australia won the toss both times, giving it the massive advantage of batting first.

If cricket had crystal balls it would not shock to see the Australian drought continue for years – decades - because there are two key forces maintaining the status quo.

The first is that the might of the Indian Premier League has flushed out a generation of fit, skilful, well paid India stars who fear no-one or nothing.

India have dominated majority of the opening two Tests.

Former Indian coach John Wright used to tell stories of Indian players nonchalantly riding exercise bikes in sandals and sitting in arm chairs during breaks at net sessions.

The days of cushy comfort are gone. Virat Kohli sparked a fitness revolution which spans from weightlifting to drinking green tea and eating dragon fruit and water melon in many small meals scattered throughout the day.

India don’t just have a crack Test XI. They have depth.

Allrounder Washington Sundar has a Test batting average of 66 from a small number of outings but cannot get a game and nor can fast man Shardul Thakur who has a Test bowling average of 24 runs per wicket.

India have trounced Australia despite their star keeper Rishabh Pant and bowling trump Jasprit Bumrah being unavailable this series.

The second factor is that Australia just doesn’t have the time or the temperament to target a series in a way that you simply have to do to beat India in India.

Peter Handscomb walks off after he was dismissed during day three of the second Test. Picture: Getty Images

The call should have gone out to the SCG to prepare a spinner’s delight for the last Test of the home summer against South Africa but Australia could not even be bothered doing that.

Let’s be frank. Australia snatched at success in India and came up with thin air. Scuffing up a wicket at North Sydney a week before departure was a bit like jumping on a clay court for a hit before you play Rafael Nadal in the French Open.

T20 cricket has made India a stronger cricket nation because they are the centre of the T20 universe and dozens of their up and comers get tutored by superstars.

But other nations are more vulnerable by the new format because their stars focus is blurred by the IPL attractions and their own home needs and an increasingly crammed cricket calendar

When Australia famously won in India in 2004 – their only success since Bill Lawry’s team of 1969 – their thoughts were not muddled by T20 cricket.

There was no Big Bash, no Indian Premier League and it was not possible for Australian players to earn a decent living outside the game unless they played decent Test cricket for their country.

It made winning in India an obsession as opposed to something that would be great to do.

Originally published as Indian Test tour: Gap between Aussies and India will get wider as major hoodoo looms