India’s broken bones and breaking spirit

The visitors arrived in good spirits, finished the second Test in an even better mood, but things have escalated quickly.

Mohammed Siraj makes a formal complaint to umpire Paul Reiffel about crowd abuse during day four of the Test at the SCG Picture: Getty Images

The Indians were a sorry sight as they got down from the team bus ahead of day four of the Third Test. Rishabh Pant’s arm was in a compression bandage. Ravi Jadeja held his hand gingerly, the thumb fractured the evening before.

Coach Ravi Shastri showed his face and contempt for this sorry state they find themselves in by not wearing a mask.

Why would they be happy?

Not on the bus are Mohammed Shami (broken arm), Umesh Yadav (hamstring) Ishant Sharma (unavailable for selection) and Virat Kohli (child birth).

Watch Australia v India Test Series Live & Ad-Break Free During Play with the Fox Cricket commentary team. New to Kayo? Get your free trial now & start streaming instantly >

The previous day they had let the match slip. A poor performance with the bat left them the best part of 100 runs in arrears. They’re facing a big run chase with two batsmen essentially unavailable.

The previous night the side made representations to the umpires about the treatment of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah by elements of the crowd. They say they were racially abused which is a disgrace if true.

The Indians who climbed onto the bus last night may have been in a worse mood than the ones who got off it in the morning. While Cameron Green was dispatching their bowlers into the crowd something unpleasant was curdling in the stands.

The game came to a halt as the Indians complained of more abuse. Spectators were escorted from the stadium and a sense of unease replaced the previous excitement.

The Indians have broken bones and breaking spirits. If the complaints around going to Brisbane are any indication then it is clear that they’re sick and tired of this tour now.

It’s startling how quickly we got to this point. This, as they say on social media, escalated quickly.

What a long, strange time it has been between here and Melbourne.

The same group were ecstatic after their win at the MCG. Shastri told anybody who would listen that it was the best win of his coaching career. He and the fellow coaches toasted their success with fine wine in the team hotel and all was right with the world.

Then the walls started closing in, there’s an emotional volatility in the camp.

The tightening of quarantine restrictions has set them off and they’re looking for an argument. At first they did not want to travel to Brisbane because they feared even less freedom than they have in Sydney (they are confined to the team hotel where previously they could go out and dine outside).

Looming large on the visitors mind is a four Test series against England at home which begins February 5.

Assured repeatedly that things were essentially the same when they travel north, they have now leapt on the hard lockdown in Brisbane and news of a mutant virus strain.

A team looking for an excuse found one.

The England tour of South Africa before Christmas reached a similar point and bubble life was again a cause of the fracturing. In the end the goodwill engendered by England for touring there in the middle of the pandemic was strained by their complaints and eventual early exit.

Mike Atherton summed up that situation with his usual erudition on these pages in December.

“The fundamental point is that players, buttressed by plentiful opportunities outside of international cricket, and with support from player unions that are far more powerful and assertive than in years gone by, hold most of the cards,” he wrote.

“In a time of a pandemic involving a potentially killer virus, and with mental health and wellbeing at the forefront of any conversation, it would have been a brave chief executive to challenge his players. (Tom) Harrison was not about to do so.

“He was on the back foot with his opposite number at Cricket South Africa, Kugandrie Govender, the acting chief executive. An agreement was struck, a conciliatory tone negotiated, and England have agreed to pick up some of the extra costs of any rescheduled trip. Neither party was keen for the relationship to be damaged, especially so South Africa, given the challenges they face to maintain their status as a cricketing superpower.”

The BCCI may be in a similar position with Shastri and his outfit. Meetings about Brisbane continued among the chiefs but the troops on the ground.

Ricky Ponting has run out of sympathy for the visitors.

“It looks like they are trying to find an excuse not to go to Brisbane,” he said. “At the start of the week it was the quarantine conditions and the hotel in Brisbane they were concerned about, now it‘s the fear of getting COVID. Which one is it?

“The bubble thing as well is starting to annoy me a little bit. The Australians have actually been in a bubble longer than the Indians have. You put the Indian tour on before the start of the IPL.

“The Australians have been locked up longer in the same situation. We didn’t hear anything about these Indian players worrying about quarantines or lockdowns in the middle of the IPL, did we?

“I‘m pretty sure a lot of the Indian players have got their families here with them as well. It’s not like they are all away from their families. Winding the clock back six weeks, Steve Smith hadn’t seen his wife for five months. I think it’s quite similar. I’m saying it’s a little bit harder for the Indians.

“Yes, they are away from home and don’t have the comforts of home, neither do the Australians. (But) it’s to the stage where you get on with it, you have signed up for the tour to play the Test matches. It’s not ideal for anyone, or the Australians, if they go to Brisbane (and are then) locked down in a hotel.”

Travelling teams get worn down on long tours, it always happens, but it happens at warp speed when there are restrictions. What was a slow boil in a saucepan becomes instant in the pressure cooker.

The issues burn like spot fires. After the third day two meetings took place in front of the members. Officials met to establish the details of the crowd abuse while Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley spoke with the Indian tour manager – presumably to reassure him that Brisbane conditions are not as bad as imagined.

It is dangerous to roll the eyes at the new complaint. If the outbreak in Brisbane is not serious then why has the state government imposed a strict lockdown on the city?

The new variant of the virus appears more of a threat than the one to which we were just becoming accustomed.

The strains on cricket sides in times like these might also be things we need become accustomed to.