Sunil Gavaskar says the Indians are watching with amusement as questions swirl around the Australian team

Perth is done and dusted, Adelaide is now to be busted. That’s how the Indian team is thinking. Winning the first Test match of a series and away from home is a super way to start. The team that has lost is playing catch up and though this is a five-Test series, trying to get back on an even keel takes a huge effort.

There’s the example of India from four years ago as they climbed the mountain after they were blown away for 36 in the first Test in Adelaide on their last tour of Australia.

In the next Test, on Boxing Day, they were given a lifeline by Australia when captain Tim Paine opted to bat first at the MCG on a pitch that had six millimetres more grass than at Adelaide.

Not only had the visitors just been demolished for their lowest score ever in Test cricket, but their charismatic captain and best batter Virat Kohli had opted to leave the team for personal reasons. Psychologically, they were down in the dumps and were ripe for the taking in Melbourne if they had been asked to bat first after the 36 all out.

Instead, by choosing to bat, Australia allowed Jasprit Bumrah and company to get India back in the game as they bowled the Aussies out for 195. Then Ajinkya Rahane played a captain’s innings to get a century and got the team a good lead from which the Aussies never recovered.

A couple of Tests later, to show again that nobody is indispensable in this sport, the Indians went on to breach “Fortress Gabba” without Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin and win the series in style.

There were two tough, hard-boiled Mumbai boys in charge then. Coach Ravi Shastri, one of the shrewdest brains in the game who lifted the team’s spirits after that Adelaide disaster, and Rahane, a quiet, low-profile but tough-as-nails guy as the captain.

Do the Aussies have somebody like that in their ranks who can make the players forget the rumblings around them? And boy, are there some loud growls too.