India reveal planning for 'leg-side trap' that snared Australia

India effectively strangled Australia with a leg-side trap to secure their epic 2-1 series victory this summer, bowling coach Bharat Arun has claimed.

Humiliated in Adelaide, where they were shot out for a record innings low of 36, an injury-ravaged India won in Melbourne to level the series and batted out the fifth day to secure a draw in Sydney before completing a series victory for the ages by clinching the Brisbane decider.

It all began with a call from head coach Ravi Shastri five months before the first Test got underway in Adelaide, according to Arun.

"Ravi Shastri called me sometimes in July and said we need to take the off-side out of the Australians," the former Test player told reporters in a video conference.

"We had our own analysis. Steve Smith and (Marnus) Labuschagne and most of the Australians got a lot of runs out of the cut, the pull and on the off-side," he said.

India's analysts had also noted Australia's batting mainstay Smith's discomfort against balls aimed at his body during Australia's series against New Zealand earlier last year.

"Ravi said, 'I want to make a plan to eliminate the off-side for the Australians'. Then we sat about and planned the whole thing.

"We said we're going to attack more straighter lines and have an on-side field, so it is very difficult for their batsman to be consistently clearing the on-side fields. That really worked for us."

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was impressed how India employed the leg-slip position in Melbourne where Smith, Labuschagne and captain Tim Paine all fell into the trap.

Arun said captain Virat Kohli, who returned home after the Adelaide loss to attend the birth of his daughter, and stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane endorsed the plans, while the bowlers stuck to the suggested line.

India returned to a rousing reception on Thursday and Arun said the euphoria would not affect their preparation for the four-Test series against England beginning on February 5.

"As our fielding coach R Sridhar said, it took us two days to forget that 36 all out," Arun said.

"Similarly, we have done an exceptional job in Australia... but we need to forget this also and look forward to the England series." 

Meanwhile, India opener Shubman Gill's father says facing some 1500 short balls each day in practice and batting with a cricket stump honed the new Test star's skills.

The 21-year-old made his Test debut in the second match in Melbourne, smashed his maiden half-century in Sydney and produced an elegant fourth-innings knock of 91 in Brisbane where India completed a remarkable 2-1 series victory.

"Since he was nine, I made him play 1500 short balls every day," Gill's father Lakhwinder Singh told the Times of India newspaper.

To make it difficult for the youngster, Singh would often bounce the ball off a charpoy, a traditional woven bed.

"The ball tends to travel faster after skidding off the charpoy," Singh said.

"Besides that, he practised with a single stump as his bat. That helped Shubman in finding the middle of the bat more often than not."

Gill's family moved some 300km from a village in Punjab to Mohali, a Test venue in the northern Indian state, in search of better training facilities.

Singh also made his son practise on coir or canvas matting wickets to prepare him better for short-pitched deliveries.

"The extra bounce that matting provides forces you to get in ... the correct position," Singh said.

"Batsmen who have played on matting pitches develop the ability to play on the backfoot, which is so essential for any higher level of cricket."

The Punjab player's rise has resolved India's opening issues after Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal struggled in Australia.

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: Test drawn

Fourth Test: India won by three wickets