Rob Houwing

Before I temper my views slightly from a Proteas point of view, let me make something very clear: I reckon there’s every chance Australia’s gruesome, second-Test demolition in India genuinely does signal the beginning of the end of the Baggy Greens’ lengthy, all-conquering era.

Yes, Australia will be hurting massively right now but, unlike their great teams of the recent past who would tend to strike back from a Test hiccup with brutal zeal and efficiency, I’m battling to find a quick-fix revitalising tonic on the Subcontinent for Ricky Ponting’s class of 2008/09.

Simply, I see no way back for them in the four-Test series - even if it may appear a crazy thing to suggest of a team who remain significantly out in front on the ICC rankings and have been the fearsome trend-setters for nearer two decades than one.

Look, they ought not do a West Indies and crash altogether from imperious kings to begging-bowl paupers, but the rest of the credible Test pack will certainly begin to close in: Mohali was a signal of tangible Aussie fallibility not just to the Indians but to other ambitious nations too.

And I say that even with this series only at the halfway mark: India have not yet clinched the deal, but I believe they will, whether it’s at Delhi or Nagpur. For even if the hosts fail to win another Test, I also don’t envisage Australia actually winning one, either. And in that scenario, of course, India will be happy to say: “1-0? We’ll take it, thank you very much.”

Get his act together

Mohali was Australia’s worst defeat in runs terms since 1997/98 when, under Tubby Taylor’s tenure, they succumbed to the same foe at Calcutta by an innings and 219 runs. By my own calculation, Punter’s boys bossed only two of 13 sessions in the latest match … yes, two of 13!

That said, I have a hunch there’ll be some remaining fight in the Aussie batsmen before hostilities end some time around November 10. You would expect Matt Hayden (series average 10.50 as we speak), for instance, to get his act together before the dust settles.

But from a bowling point of view? That’s where I only read “problems” for the tourists - woes that could turn more terminal as South Africa and then England loom on their unforgiving short- to medium-term calendar.

I’d be surprised if we see anything but deadbeat tracks for the remainder of this series, and under those circumstances India’s batsmen will hungrily contemplate further rich pickings!

Australia missed Stuart Clark’s discipline and pressure-building ability in Mohali and will want him fit again in a hurry, even if there is no guarantee he will simply pitch up and run through the Indian line-up.

Senior pro Brett Lee’s admitted contretemps with his captain may be educative: Shane Warne is said to have fallen out with Ponting over similar, on-field “policy” issues in England in 2005, and we all know the eventual outcome of that series.

Mitchell Johnson has had his moments – the left-armer bowls with commendably consistent high pace; better than any current South African – but he is a bit of a slingshot, spear-it-in customer who lacks the height to take full advantage of atmospheric conditions and do devilish things off the seam, I suspect.

Haven't had the guts

For the rest, though, the Aussie attack is looking almost grotesquely threadbare. “He’s the new Darren Pattinson!” cooed an office wit as we watched debutant Peter Siddle amble in sedately -- and largely unproductively -- at Mohali. Mind you, where worse than India to play your first Test as a fast bowler?

And the spin resources have lurched violently from the caviar of the Warne/MacGill heyday to soft cream crackers as Cameron White loops it up high but without tangible tweak - and sometimes eccentrically wide - in India and the Aussies haven’t had the guts yet to blood “offie” Jason Krejza (after he went nought for 199 in a tour warm-up encounter).

Part of the problem for Oz, as they get to grips with life after Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist, Warne and McGrath is that they aren’t even producing any genuine wunderkinds by way of replacement: Simon Katich is 33 and Brad Haddin close to 31, just for example.

But we must nevertheless be cautious not to hype up South Africa’s away-and-home prospects against the Aussies too expansively, following the “murder in Mohali”.

As England discovered in the return Ashes after that famous 2005 success, the Baggy Greens remain a wholly different kettle of fish in their own rowdy, testosterone-laden backyards. It’s not very long ago, too (2007/08), that the very same India were downed 2-1 on Australian soil.

We need to remember that the Proteas have arrived in Australia on a rousing swell of optimism before … and, to borrow surfing parlance, been unceremoniously wiped out instead. Yes, they haven’t yet, post-isolation, actually walked the walk there.

At the same time, just a teeny-weeny bout of confident lip-licking by the Proteas would not be altogether out of order at this juncture of rare soul-searching, vulnerability and angst Down Under, would it?
 
Rob Houwing is Sport24's chief writer.

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