We might as well be in another country. It took more than five hours’ flying time to travel from Sydney to Perth, the capital of Western Australia that’s closer in time zone to several Asian countries than to most of Australia. Cricketing conditions at the Optus Stadium too are set to be vastly different from the rest of the country, unlikely to bear too much resemblance to what is the norm in the subcontinent.

The Optus Stadium, which made its international debut with the second Test between Australia and India in December 2018, doesn’t inspire the same awe or reverence as the WACA ground, just 1.3 kilometres away and the scene of many a cricketing epic, though it is a modern marvel in every sense of the word. India and South Africa will spend less time admiring the behemoth and more on focussing on the immediate task in front of them, a top-of-the-table Group 2 Super 12 table with huge ramifications not just for them, but the others in their pool in the T20 World Cup.