Opportunistic journalism by Australian media, tries to upset the morale of the Indian team
The Australian media is often known to go above and beyond to support their sporting teams, especially their Cricket team. One of their main strategies is to play mind games with the opposition teams.
Recently reports surfaced in the Australian media, accusing the Indian team of trying to avoid playing in Brisbane, Gabba. These media reports claimed that the Indian team doesn’t want to travel to Brisbane, and while the origin of these are impossible to ascertain, the Australian media had a field day with it. They’ve been bullish and cited the fantastic record the Australian cricket team has at Gabba, undefeated in 28 matches going back to 1988. They have even gone to the extent of accusing some of the Indian players of breaching the bio bubble. Initially it was Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Navdeep Saini, Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw who were accused of the act.
Another picture doing the rounds is that of Hardik and Kohli at a toy shop, being accused of breaching the bio bubble.
Now, coming back to the initial accusations of the Australian media claiming that the Indian players are actually scared of facing the Aussies at the Gabba. The fact is most of these Indian players have been in hard quarantine since August 2020. They played the IPL, in quarantine, and then directly flew to Australia, where they had to quarantine again. Imagine being in a situation where you are missing your family, missing being away from them on Diwali, Christmas, and New year too, now you are told you have to go to Brisbane and do another hard quarantine. Players/athletes are human beings too, let’s not forget that.
Most important though no official announcement has been made by the BCCI about this situation. Maybe all this is just a figment of imagination of the Australian media who just couldn’t handle the grit and fight shown by the Indian team in coming back and winning the test match.
Records are meant to be broken! That the Australian cricket team has a great record at the Gabba will count for nothing, in fact will not perturb the Indians one bit, if Australia continues to bat the way they are doing.
The Australian top order batsmen have looked listless, so far, against a potent Indian pace attack. They have failed to score more than 200 more than once and have been hit on the head, chest, legs, every part of the body while trying to resist Bumrah and co.
Chances are Navdeep Saini will make his debut in the next match, might play at Gabba too, and he bowls in excess of 150km/ hr. Just saying!
The BCCI has tried to help Cricket Australia the best it can. At a time when Cricket Australia was piling on the debts, firing its employees, this Ind vs Aus series has come as a life saver for Cricket Australia. Wherever spectators were allowed, the grounds have been house full. All this at a time when the Australian states keep changing their quarantine rules, keep closing their borders etc at no prior notice, a complete logistical nightmare. Look around and you will find teams like England cancel the series and head home in a jiffy at the sight of one covid case in the opposition camp or one mishap etc, no second thoughts to spare on the resultant losses incurred by Cricket South Africa. So if anything the Australian media should be grateful and gracious and stop crying wolf.
The Indian team and the BCCI have done a fantastic job by playing this series and doing it so sportingly. In these hard times, a bit of entertainment can go a long way in healing broken, tired minds, and Cricket the way India played last time is Entertainment gold. I am sure fans around the world are applauding you right now. As far as the Aussie media goes, they just want to create hype and pressure on the Indians, to stop them from winning this test series. After all two back to back test series wins by India in Australia is something unthinkable for them.
But this is the new India, they do the unthinkable, achieve the impossible.
For now though the Indian team should concentrate on the SCG test, and not let their minds wander off to Brisbane which is what the opposition players, fans and the media want.
