Catherine McGregor: Australia vs. India the Mohammed Siraj and Travis Head clash doesn’t compare to great battles

The clash between India’s quick and Australia’s in-form batsman was spectacular watching, adding some much needed fireworks to the Adelaide Test. But in the chapters of Australia vs. India it’s far from the most fierce rivalry, writes Catherine McGregor.

The redoubtable Ian Chappell had a simple philosophy that guided him as a Test skipper.

When asked what the opportune circumstance was in which to invite an opposing team to bat when he won the toss, Chappelli wryly advised “Think about sending the other team in. Then think about it again. Then have a bat.”

Always bat first. Especially in Brisbane. Just ask Nasser Hussain, who thought he discerned something in the Gabba deck on the opening morning of the 2002-2003 Ashes against Steve

Waugh’s Australians. The carnage that followed probably set the tone for the series as Australia went to stumps on day one at 2-364. Nasser can laugh at his own expense these days, but his folly became folklore and part of the mystique around Australian invincibility at the “Gabbatoir”.

As I confessed in my comeback dig readers I am badly out of nick. It’s been a long time between digs, so the boss has me on a short leash!

Travis Head gestures as he leaves the field after being dismissed for 140 on the second day of the second Test cricket match between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval. Picture: AFP

I am filing mid-afternoon on what is effectively day one, so I may look as prescient as Nasser Hussain by the time the paper hits my local coffee shop in the morning.

At the time of filing, it is premature to predict whether Rohit Sharma will replace Nasser Hussain as the salutary warning to future touring teams. Claiming three wickets before lunch is regarded as some vindication of the gamble involved in forfeiting first use of the wicket.

Offsetting India’s early inroads into the Australian top order was the injury to Mohammed Siraj, which looked set to deprive the crowd of a pantomime villain but he returned several moments later.

He’s the new villain, but does Mohammed Siraj live up to is predecessors? Picture: Getty Images

The media storm about his clash with Travis Head in Adelaide seemed disproportionate to me.

Remember the so called “Monkeygate” when Harbhajan Singh evidently directed a vile racial taunt at Australian player, Andrew Symonds, during the Sydney Test in 2008?

Relations between the nations at the Board level went to the brink. An Indian walkout was averted but at the expense of “Roy” Symonds, who felt bitterly betrayed by the hierarchy who capitulated to the Indian Board of Control.

In the Adelaide Test of 2012, Virat Kohli launched a very personal attack on Australian opener Ed Cowan. All who were privy to it considered it reprehensible. Greg Chappell who coached India between 2005 and 2007 considers Kohli a transformative influence in the evolution of a more abrasive attitude among the Indian team, especially towards Australia.

Portrait of Catherine McGregor, who has penned this column. Picture: Sean Davey.

Chappell has written that Kohli antagonizes the Australians because his intensity matches theirs.

“He came out of an Indian triumph in the Under 19 World Cup, with a bit of swagger and attitude. I remember an era when the Indian teams were probably overly deferential to Australia and England. But the intensity personified by Virat is a generational phenomenon.

He is part of generation that is living in an era when anything seems possible for India. You must have lived there to realise that the emergence of a more confident nation is inevitably reflected across the board in all walks of life. Cricket included.”

The Indian commentator, Boria Majumdar, whose doctoral thesis from Oxford provides an impressive insight into the nexus between Indian society and cricket, founded online sports channel Revsportz. His insights into the Indian team are invaluable and mirror Chappell’s.

ADVirat Kohli of India gestures to the crowd after teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal catches out Marnus Labuschagne of Australia during day two of the Men's Test Match series between Australia and India at Adelaide Oval. Picture: Getty Images

He told this column of the immense challenge Siraj faced when India last toured Australia.

The team was in hard lockdown in Melbourne when his father died. He was confined to his room unable to grieve with family. Police patrolled the corridors of the team hotel.

According to Majumdar, this forged Siraj as the fierce competitor we have witnessed this summer.

“Here was a young man from Hyderabad who had lost his father but was unable to come back to his family bringing smiles to a billion faces…He wasn’t Muslim or Hindu, he was Indian. This was the India of our dreams, not the India deeply divided by privilege and underprivilege.” Majumdar stressed the deep significance of a young Muslim Indian carrying the national flag after India’s triumph at the Gabba in 2021. It is too early to tell how this Test will unfold. Regardless of the result I hope Mohammed Siraj returns to complete the series.

This has already been a compelling series. And don’t listen to the hype. Most of these guys share dressing rooms in the IPL. Relations between the teams have never been better.

Originally published as Catherine McGregor: Australia vs. India the Mohammed Siraj and Travis Head clash doesn’t compare to great battles