Wade surprised by India aggression

Few Test cricketers feel more at home in the heat of a scrap than Australia’s combative keeper Matthew Wade, but even he was surprised by the aggression that India uncorked during the volatile second Test in Bengaluru. 

As the Australians got back to the business of preparing for the third match that starts in Ranchi on Thursday, Wade articulated his team’s response to the most noticeable change in their opponents across the previous weeks.

That being the switch from a listless, bordering on dispirited outfit in the opening match at Pune that Australia won by a crushing 333 runs to the snarling, animated team that stormed back to win at Chinnaswamy and level the series.

Led by their demonstrably agitated captain Virat Kohli who had bemoaned his players’ lack of intent at Pune and did everything within his considerable powers and the game’s less authoritative etiquette rule book to get them up and firing a week later.

Kohli presents a vastly different on-field persona to that of his predecessor MS Dhoni who was equally as competitive, but a far less overtly combative general in the heat of battle.

But it was the shift in demeanour from Pune to Bengaluru, where the India team made a repeated point of retaliating to any verbal barbs thrown their way before giving the tourists a return serve with interest that has been the talking point among the Australians as they enjoyed a few free days prior to their return to training this afternoon.

“They’re always aggressive,” Wade said of the India Test team that he first encountered on Australia’s disastrous 0-4 drubbing on the subcontinent in 2013.

“The change from the first Test to the second Test was probably the initial shock.

“They certainly came out a little harder on day three (at Bengaluru), but we expect them to come hard.

“When you’ve got a caged lion you expect them to come out pretty hard, to get away.

“Indian teams are always quite aggressive.

“Dhoni was a different captain to Kohli, but that’s just personality.”

There is a growing feeling that India, under the leadership of Kohli who took over from Dhoni as Test skipper during his team’s previous encounter with Australia in the summer of 2014-15, is being partly driven by a sense of payback.

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The series’ host broadcaster has employed the social media hashtag ‘bullying the bullies’ which encapsulates the sentiment that many India fans feel about the treatment their team has received, most notably in Australia, during years past.

Certainly Kohli appears to be at his most belligerent when locked in combat with his antipodean rivals, and he exudes the air of somebody carrying a deep personal grievance for past mistreatment.

He has been involved in several heated run-ins with opponents while playing in Australia in recent years, and used a famous post-match media conference after he posted a brilliant hundred in Melbourne in 2014 to take aim at his tormentors.

Who he claimed had repeatedly called him a “spoiled brat” on the field, singling out now retired Mitchell Johnson as a foe he couldn’t respect because he showed no deference towards the now India captain.

“I like playing against Australia because it’s very hard for them to stay calm,” Kohli said at the time.

“And I don’t mind an argument on the field, it really excites me and brings the best out of me.

“They don’t seem to be learning the lesson.”

Prior to the series beginning in Pune last month, Kohli told a media conference when asked about his relationship with the touring Australians that he was “really good friends with all these guys off the field”.

It’s unclear how the closeness of that rapport is tracking after events in Bengaluru last week, but it’s unlikely the India captain will be breaking bread (or a traditional Jharkand litti choka) at breakfast in the Ranchi hotel that the two teams will be sharing.

Even though Kohli’s current return of 40 runs from four completed innings (at an average of 10) makes this the least productive Test series in which he’s been involved since he made his debut in the Caribbean in 2011.

Wade foreshadowed that the tension so evident in Bengaluru will doubtless percolate through to Ranchi, Dhoni’s home town, but reiterated the team is refusing to be distracted by the verbal sideshow unfolding on and off the field 

“Indian teams always go quite hard, if you give them a sniff they’ll run with it,” Wade said today.

“Our job is to make sure they can’t get in the game so they can’t get aggressive with us, and then really take the momentum away from us.

“But it’s not really our issue.

“We’ve got to play good cricket, and beat them on skill.

“Emotion doesn’t win Test matches.”

And while India showed at Chinnaswamy Stadium they are prepared to come out all gums blazing when the situation demands, Wade has also reserved his right to revert to his trademark combative character.

Should he feel his team needs the sort of rallying cry that Kohli sounded loud and often during the second Test.

“I feel like I play my best cricket when I get in the contest,” Wade said about his reputation for being an outspoken competitor on the field.

“When you’re back’s against the wall you’ve gotta find a way to get up and about, so I still feel like that’s a big part of my game.

“Getting older I probably tamed it down a little bit and I probably know when to use it a little bit more now, and when I need it myself.

“I probably don’t use it a hundred per cent of the time any more, but I’ve still got it there if I need it.

“If there’s a time I think it can be an advantage for us, sure – I’ll go for it.”