‘Make no mistake, this was as big an upset as when Buster Douglas floored Mike Tyson’

PUNE, India - YEARS from now, the picture of Virat Kohli looking back at his flattened off stump might be viewed in the same way as the iconic image of Mike Tyson with mouthguard hanging out of his mouth after being floored by Buster Douglas.

Make no mistake, this was that kind of upset.

In the days leading up to that February 1990 fight, few in Las Vegas were even offering odds on the fight. The Mirage, which did, had Douglas as a 42-to-1 underdog.

Tyson’s six previous fights, against the likes of Larry Holmes, Michael Spinks and Frank Bruno, had lasted a total of 20 rounds.

India’s last six series at home had seen them win 4-0 (Australia), 2-0 (West Indies), 3-0 (South Africa), 3-0 (New Zealand), 4-0 (England) and 1-0 (Bangladesh). They were as much prohibitive favourites as Tyson had been in Tokyo all those years ago.

But Australia, who were under little pressure as Steve Smith admitted after the game, had come better prepared than most sides.

The victory in Pune was eerily similar in a lot of ways to England’s triumph in Mumbai in December 2012.

Monumental knocks from Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook helped set that up, but it was Monty Panesar (11 for 210) and Graeme Swann (8 for 113) that crippled a feted batting line-up on a spin-friendly pitch that had been expected to favour the hosts.

Their English counterparts comprehensively outbowled R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh — whose little “4-0 spiel” before the Pune Test clearly piqued the Aussie camp.

Panesar, in particular, was much quicker through the air, and the ball skidded on far too quickly for the comfort of most batsmen.

India’s bowlers got the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ for beating the bat repeatedly. The English got the wickets, and the Test win.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that Steve O’Keefe spent a couple of days in Brisbane, talking through his methods with Panesar, who took three tours of India to figure out just how to bowl on pitches that were loaded in favour of spin.

Back in 1987, when Imran Khan’s Pakistan side beat India by 16 runs in Bangalore, the Pakistani spin duo of Iqbal Qasim (left-arm spin) and Tauseef Ahmed (off-spin) gave much of the credit to Bishan Singh Bedi, the Indian spin titan.

Bedi’s advice had been simple: ‘On such a minefield, don’t try to rip it too hard. The straight ball is often the most dangerous.’

Smith spoke of precisely that after the 333-run win. “Those guys [Ashwin and Jadeja] are big spinners of the ball, and generally it’s the one that goes straight that gets you in a bit of trouble,” he said.

India’s frustration at the three-day defeat was perhaps exacerbated by the identity of the man O’Keefe credited for his stunning figures (12 for 70). Sridharan Sriram played eight ODIs for India between March 2000 and December 2004. Like many Australians of that era, he had an outstanding first-class record as well, averaging 53 and scoring 32 hundreds.

Such were India’s batting riches at the time, however, that he never got a look in.

My outstanding memory of him as a player is from an ODI in Sharjah in late 2000. He had made a four-ball nought against Zimbabwe, hooking one down straight to the fielder, and needed a score against Sri Lanka to further his chances of staying in the side. After making six, he cut Chaminda Vaas to point.

Minutes later, Rajan Bala, a veteran Indian journalist who had once had the temerity to offer Viv Richards batting advice — it wasn’t well received — stormed into the players’ viewing area and started berating Sriram in Tamil.

I didn’t catch the entire conversation, but I remember him asking the dazed young man why he hadn’t rolled his wrists while playing the shot.

Sriram’s first-class career ended at this very stadium in Pune on Christmas Eve in 2011. He had played 133 games by then, the bulk of them with the soul-destroying knowledge that the cherished India Test cap would never be his. Yet, he remained the consummate pro, and his itinerant career after leaving Tamil Nadu, his home state, gave him even greater knowledge of the varied conditions that can make Indian domestic cricket so fascinating.

Sriram is notionally Australia’s spin consultant. And while O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon both spoke of his influence, it would be a very foolish batsman that didn’t also pick his brain.

Like Steve Smith, he was initially seen as a spin prodigy, taking a heap of wickets on an Under-19 tour of South Africa. Gradually though, the bowling took a back seat and he became one of the most prolific top-order batsmen in the country.

At lunch on both the second and third days, he and O’Keefe were on the outfield, practising different variations, especially in terms of using the crease. At his press conference on the second day, O’Keefe spoke of how he’d starting off bowling in his comfort zone, ‘what I bowl in Australia’. Darren Lehmann made it clear that that wasn’t good enough, and Sriram went out with him at lunch to nail down the strategy O’Keefe would employ.

But what worked on a cracked-mirror pitch in Pune may not be what’s required on the more traditional Indian surface that Ashwin favours, which the Indian team management will doubtless press for at the remaining venues.

Smith, for one, is fully aware of the likely response.

“It’s certainly going to be a difficult next three Test matches,” he said.

“India are quality side here in their own backyard, and they are going to come back hard at us.”

For his part, Kohli exhibited glacial calm even when confronted with provocative questions — but the eyes gave him away.

“I can assure you that we are going to come back with more intent, and put Australia under pressure straight from ball one [in Bangalore],” he said.

A series that many were previously lukewarm about has suddenly caught fire. We could be in for a white-knuckle ride.

Dileep Premachandran is editor-in-chief of Wisden India. He tweets @SpiceBoxofEarth.