A successful failure? Assessing Australia’s Indian adventure

Ahmedabad: Six years ago, Steve Smith sat in Dharamshala and pondered a 2-1 series defeat to India where Australia could easily have gone home winners.

In 2023, Smith did more or less the same thing, underlining that in registering the same result, much had been lost this time around as well as gained.

Ravichandran Ashwin gets Steve Smith on the sweep in Delhi.Credit: Getty Images

None of Smith, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon are likely to be back next time; in terms of India at least, they will retire unfulfilled.

In its way, the 2023 series can be termed a successful failure, much as 2017 had been - but only if the precious gains of the past few weeks are not lost when 2027 comes around.

By winning in Indore, Australia claimed only the third win by a visiting team in India since 2012.

And in Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Pete Handscomb, Alex Carey, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann the team has the nucleus of a group that has every chance of finally beating India in 2027.

They will carry home plenty of technical and tactical lessons, as well as the searing memory of what Smith has repeatedly called “that mad hour” in Delhi. For his generation, it will be the defining moment of their last Test tour here.

“We really hurt after that game in Delhi,” Smith said. “Guys were pretty upset with the way we went away from our methods in that game, it was disappointing, but obviously at that point we knew there was plenty to still play for in the series and guys responded really well and as a group we are proud of the way we bounced back and play some good cricket in the last couple of Test matches.”

Asked to cast his mind towards the younger players in the team, Smith was genuinely enthused. So too, when speaking to broadcasters, was India’s coach Rahul Dravid, who paid tribute to the quality of the spin bowled by Murphy and Kuhnemann opposite Lyon - they were, by his estimation, the best spin combination seen here since Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar in 2012.

“All the [young] guys are going to take a hell of a lot out of the last couple of weeks,” Smith said. “Kuhnemann and Murphy debuting in Test cricket in India, it can be quite daunting at times, and the way they came in and were able to perform was outstanding.

“Heady up the top of the order at short notice going up and playing the way he did was a real positive. I think Greeny the way he came in and played was outstanding as well, and Marnus has shown glimpses throughout the series. He’s got some good starts without really going on with it.

Captains Steve Smith and Rohit Sharma call it a day.Credit: Getty

“But he’s showed he’s able to play here as well and he’s a world-class player. So he’s going to take a lot out of this series for next time he comes back, and I’m sure a lot of the players will.“

Australia will face India again in a couple of months’ time, for the World Test Championship final at The Oval in London. Given the fact that India have also beaten Australia twice at home in recent seasons, it will be a fair decider.

“The guys are really pumped by it, really excited,” Smith said. “We saw India when they came back out on the field just after New Zealand had won ... shaking their hands and what have you. So it’s going to be great coming up against India in the final.

“The Oval wicket there can take some spin at times, particularly as the game wears on, so it could be interesting in terms of what sort of wicket we get. But it’s a great place to play cricket, there’s usually reasonable bounce and pace for an English wicket, it’s probably as close as you get to Australia potentially in terms of pace and bounce, so it’s going to be a great Test match.”

As for 2027 in India, the biggest factor may have much more to do with who is playing for the home side. It is more likely than not that by then neither Ravichandran Ashwin nor Ravindra Jadeja will be playing, leaving a gulf akin to that of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in Australia.

“Both of them are marathon players for us,” India’s captain Rohit Sharma said.

“They know exactly how to get the job done, especially in this part of the world. You give them the ball, they get you those breakthroughs. With the bat they get crucial runs. Very important players.

“For us, where we stand today in terms of how we perform, especially in India, a lot of credit goes to them; a large part of our success goes to those two guys. It’s not just for a period of a few years, it’s over a decade now.

“So a long, long time to keep performing the way these two have done for us, and I can only hope that they continue to play as long as possible. Because those shoes will definitely be very big ones to fill.”

Australia, then, have a base camp for climbing the Indian mountain - so long as they don’t forget their way back here in the interim.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.