No point in this aggression

ldquoIndians know how to shout with their eyesrdquo In his epic novel Shantaram which connected the two countries like nothing else before it author Gregory Roberts exposed the raw underbelly of India to an Australian audience whose previous preconceptions were mainly based around cricket and jokes in poor tasteIt revealed a seedy beautiful sophisticated and complex society that caught most Australians unaware Watching the Indian cricketers do their thing after four days in Adelaide I wonder how much thought has gone into trying to understand the Australian psyche much less complicated but forged in a frontierstyle siege mentality that thrives on adversityUmpire Ian Gould calms down Australias Steve Smith at the Adelaide Oval yesterday PicGetty ImagesAnyone who truly believed that the Phillip Hughes tragedy would prove to be a negative distraction weighing on the minds of his mates clearly knows very little about the way Aussies react to a crisis As an Australian of Asian origin it took some time for me to understand the poignancy of the pride of Gallipoli mdash here was a nation that took enormous national pride in being part of a massacre on the beaches of Turkey in World War 1The fierce sense of nationalism that is born in adversity has never failed to astound me Pain is almost an inspiration For a nation that professes very little spirituality they harness the underdog mentality to the point where it sometimes becomes the ugly attack dogLook at the cricketers who were close to Hughes David Warner mdash twin hundreds Steve Smith almost a carbon copy Michael Clarke ditto under severe physical duress Nathan Lyon gets a fivewicket haul against the best players of spin in the world Ed Cowan one of Hughesrsquo closest friends peels off two big hundreds in a Sheffield Shield match NSW win by an innings in their first outing after the funeralSean Abbott incredibly picks up careerbest figures of 6 for 14 when there were many myself included who seriously doubted if he would ever play again If you believe in divine intervention yoursquod think the cheeky Hughes was writing the script as he sipped on a cold beer in HeavenYou could argue that there wasnrsquot much India could have done to prevent the Warner Smith Clarke freight train in the first innings Sheer emotion no small amount of courage a lashing of skill naive captaincy and inept bowling contributed to the fairytale start to the game Indiarsquos batting was brave and bold a statement of intent We will not be bullied into submission We will fight fire with fire It made for compelling Test cricketKohlirsquos vital wicketVirat Kohli paid for that attitude late on Day Three when he took on the hook shot and holed out with 10 minutes to go In the context of the match that was a gamechanger But timid he is not and that is his currency This was the new India the proud unapologetic inyourface India so vividly portrayed in ShantaramAttitude is one thing mdash tactics another The bowling plans on the first morning were dumb Ishant Sharma should have taken the new ball Ravichandran Ashwinrsquos control was what was needed to blunt the adrenalin that was inevitably flowing with Aussie tears The obsession with bowling round the wicket was sheer madness especially when you know you have to bat last on a dry pitch and your top order is stacked with righthandersTheyrsquove been unlucky no doubt but you make your own luck Wriddhiman Saha would have been reprieved if India had agreed to DRS Warner would have been caught behind Therersquos no bad luck when you take wickets off noballs If Indiarsquos overrate continues to insult the spirit of cricket they will need a new captain soon Some of the field settings defied belief for a captain who exudes aggression in his body languageSpeaking of aggression getting involved in a sledgefest with Australian cricketers is dumb and dumber Rarely does that reap dividends They thrive on conflict on adversity on having their feathers ruffledThe KohliDhawanRohit Sharma brigade may be a generation away from the timid caricature of the diminutive Indian artisan and they clearly enjoy a verbal stoush but it just doesnrsquot work on the Australian psyche Theyrsquove grown up with this mdash most of them were sledged by the midwife who delivered them It simply doesnrsquot workKohlirsquos unseemly sendoff of Chris Rogers looked ugly when it comes from a captain an Indian captain When Clarke did it against England and South Africa earlier this year it was celebrated as a sign of manhood Double standards I know but it pays to get into the head of the national psyche All it did in Adelaide was to spur Warner and Smith on to concentrate even harder It put the Indian bowlers off their game The result was alltoopredictable give an Australian an excuse to get into a junkyard scrap and he tends to grit his teeth and fight harderWrong tacticsJust look at all of Hughesrsquo best mates Their performances this week defy belief in the context of their grief They thrive on it Kohli and his team got those tactics wrong mdash sometimes the less said the better Fight fire with fire Try cold water or try shouting with your eyesldquoWisdom is just cleverness with all the guts kicked out of itrdquo was one of the gems from Shantaram And sometimes when playing against an abrasive opponent that thrives on the adrenalin rush of the lsquocontestrsquo this advice from the great book may yet prove prophetic mdash ldquosometimes you have to surrender before you can winrdquo