Australia end wait for win in India as Steve Smith backs his words with action | Adam Collins

4,502. It’s a number Steve Smith wants everyone to know: the days since Australia last won a Test in India. Way back then, it was the only time the national side had triumphed in a series in this country since The Beatles stopped writing songs. Then, it was a team resembling the Harlem Globetrotters for the champions they boasted. It truly was their final frontier.

When directly asked last month if his charges could do the same, the Australian captain avoided the question. It was taken as a tacit admission that he didn’t believe it himself. And fair enough. After all, this Indian side shares many similarities to the Australians of 13 years ago for their dominance at home, going 19 Tests and four years unbeaten their turf. Until today.

“The pressure was off us wasn’t it?” Smith observed in the afterglow of the memorable, confounding rout. “Everyone wrote us off and said India would win four-nil.” Sure did. Careful expectation management? Less that, and more an evidence base of Australia’s demolition in their last nine starts on this continent.

From the time India left Australia on the receiving end of a two-nil defeat two years ago, this return bout has loomed. No one could forget what happened last time. Optimistically, the plan was to get used to winning away again via an Ashes salute in England. Fine-tune in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, flog a few teams at home, and then come here to be certified as the world’s best. Something like that. Instead, the road has been considerably more rugged.

But now, a new reality where everything is back on the table. Where Smith’s men can let their hair down and dream a bit. With a side nowhere near as accomplished as those who won here before them, but one that might have just enough of the right pieces in the right places at the right time.

More importantly, Pune served to underscore Smith’s profound leadership . His century was wondrous for different reasons to the usual. Smith is most often the guy who sets up the Test with a huge first innings; who bats 300 balls and destroys a contest before the opposition has batted. Second-innings tons are a different beast. They’re seldom as fluent. They’re tense. They’re scrappy. This was all of that and more, with dropped catches, sketchy running and beaten edges all standard features . He still walked off as only the third Australian to reach three figures second time at bat in India.

It was so good because it fed directly into the slipstream of words Smith and his predecessor have used to deal with their collection of unflattering disasters over the last couple of years. How many times did Smith mouth “resilient” in interviews after the Hobart debacle? A dozen or more. Adaptation is the term that coach Darren Lehmann prefers. Th at is the essence of what the leadership of this team craves; to grow into considerably more than hometown bullies. To be strong above the shoulders, and for it to show around the world.

In Sri Lanka last year, throwing away solid starts to Tests became part of the routine when they strayed from the preferred course. Smith knew that couldn’t happen here. To un do the astounding work of Friday afternoon would be the best way to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again on this tour. It is this mentality that defined his stay, lasting until India were batted well out of the game with a lead nearing 400.

His best innings? “It’s got to be right up there,” Smith said after play. He acknowledged riding his luck, but added that you need to when the ball is turning square, and the two best finger spinners on the planet are coming at you. That’s the resilience he was talk ing about. Smith went on: “I had to formulate some different plans to how I normally play, to problem solve on the spot.” There is the definition of adaptation.

Smith’s calm was also highlighted due to his opposing number’s frustration. It was on display most obviously when burning his second innings reviews in a desperate effort to see optimistic shouts overturned. Th ose blunders hurt a lot more when Smith was leg-before on 77, with no provision to refer. Smith sensed that Virat Kohli was angry. It’s hard to make good decisions when you’re angry, perhaps explaining why he was later bowled without offering a shot.

Then there’s the uplifting story of Steve O’Keefe, Smith’s old housemate. He has one of those numbers too: 4,117. Th at’s the number of times he has gone to bed between his New South Wales debut and today. “A long time coming,” he laughed after being named man of the match, enjoying his first innings 6-for-35 so much he repeated the exact same figures a day later.

56 players had won baggy greens between then and now, 12 of those asked in one way or another to participate in Australia’s spin attack. It was enough time for his twin in tweak, Nathan Lyon, to become the most successful ever Australian finger spinner. “I’m just relieved,” O’Keefe said. After his first bag, he explained losing hope after his Sri Lankan tour was cruelly ended by injury. Today, he’s a national hero.

His trick isn’t magic. It’s persistence, the bedfellow of resilience and adaptation. Persistence to stay in touching distance of the national squad. Persistence to execute what every bowler is told but only the best can do: consistently hit a length.

O’Keefe also cites belief. Not necessarily that he would bowl Australia to victory, but that at the very least he could keep dropping into that same area, and in doing so he would always be in with a chance. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but he is too. Equally, the belief that Smith showed in him as a bowler. He now has the best figures ever registered by an away spinner in India.

The surface may never suit O’Keefe – or forgotten man Lyon – quite as well as it did this week. After ordering the local curator to produce a dry turner in Pune, surely the powers-that-be will hear Smith when he says the conditions “played into our hands.”

Whatever the case, you can bank on both O’Keefe hitting his spot, and Smith setting the example by batting in a way that embodies his words. Then, if they do it all again next weekend, they will have a trophy to pick up in Bangalore. Expectations. Who needs them?