Indian players are seen after they were defeated by Australia on day three of the second Test in Adelaide on December 8, 2024. India’s travails with the pink ball continues.
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India’s travails with the pink ball under Adelaide skies got a second episode over the weekend. If the 2020 outing and the meagre score of 36 are inextricably linked, the second Test of the current Border-Gavaskar Trophy series moved towards another sobering defeat.

The highs gained from the Perth Test were frittered away in the City of Churches and even if Rohit Sharma hinted at keeping the faith, the teams will start level at 1-1 in the third Test at Brisbane from December 14. Perhaps, the latest bout of oscillating fortunes is in tune with the competitive zeal often seen when India and Australia lock horns in the cricketing universe.

However, Rohit’s men had the better of fortunes if the toss factor is taken into account. The Indian skipper called right, elected to bat and it meant that his batters had enough time under the afternoon sun before facing the pink ball under lights. It was all about digging in deep before finding their fruits of labour over the course of the Test.

Instead, a 180 was mustered while Mitchell Starc grabbed six wickets. K.L. Rahul and Shubman Gill were the initial anchors but they failed to convert promise into potential. The veterans, Virat Kohli and Rohit, too fell cheaply, and it was too much to expect the others to chip in, even if Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar and R. Ashwin added some runs.

Across three innings out of the four that India batted, both at Perth’s Optus Stadium and the Adelaide Oval, it was Nitish, stepping in at number seven, who top-scored with 41, 42 and 42. Except for the phase at Perth when Rahul and centurions Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kohli excelled, the batting mainstays have been lukewarm. “We need runs on the board,” Rohit said after the defeat here on Sunday.

The skipper is aware of the drought in runs, be it from his willow and from some of his batting colleagues. That Jasprit Bumrah and company were a bit skewed in their radars under lights on the opening day, cannot be denied either. But the reality is that more often than not in the recent past, it is the bowlers and a lower order that have held India afloat in the longer format.

Even as the bowlers tried to pull back from the second day despite Harshit Rana’s expensive overs, Travis Head’s superb 140 meant that Australia was truly ahead. A 157-run deficit and another middling second innings left India on the edge. It didn’t need much for the Australian openers Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney to nudge the visitors towards the abyss.

To hope that Bumrah will deliver all the time is a fallacy, and he too needs the cover of runs to make his stealth attacks from the bowling crease more effective. “You cannot expect Bumrah to bowl from both ends,” Rohit wryly said. As the Indians look ahead towards the third Test, one relief is that it was at Brisbane’s Gabba that Pant ushered in a miracle while India won the 2020-21 series at 2-1.

India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal during a training session at Adelaide Oval on December 03, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia.
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The guardians of the 22-yards that matter in cricket, are often secretive about the surfaces they offer. The Adelaide Oval’s head curator Damian Hough, while believing in the mystique of a pitch, still held a mirror to the turf that would play host to the second Test, a day-and-night fixture, between Australia and India here from Friday (December 6, 2024).

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Talking to the media on a sunny Wednesday (December 4, 2024) morning, Damian said: “We are happy about where we are today, the compaction and the moisture is where we want it to be. You do adapt every year, get some finer details in. It is coarse matted grass, even grass cover, good with regard to moisture, but dry and hard, so something where the quicks will get a bit out of it, spinners will be able to get some light turn and bounce, but also important for us to get some partnerships with the players and the batters to be able to play their shots.”

As for the granular detail about the grass, Damian was quick to reply: “Should be around six millimetres.” And when queried again about the pitch, the curator remained guarded: “All we do is try and produce a pitch that provides an even contest between bat and ball.”

With all the talk about pace, Damian was quick to point out the venue’s soft corner for spin: “Be assured, at the Adelaide Oval, traditionally spin plays a role and we don’t see that changing.” The weather, though, might queer the pitch and Damian added: “Looks like some storms on Friday. Hopefully it clears out Saturday morning and it should be good for the remainder of the Test.”