India follow Dhoni playbook

AN HOUR-AND-a-half before the toss on Sunday, Ravindra Jadeja stepped out of the dressing room and headed straight to the square where India's support staff were taking a hard look at the pitch.

- VENKATA KRISHNA B

As he walked down from one end to the other, he gleefully exchanged high fives with Hardik Pandya, pointing out the spots in the strip that were already exciting him. For all the talk of this being a home coming for R Ashwin, it was Jadeja who actually felt so. This was the typical MA Chidambaram Stadium track that Jadeja is so accustomed to, where the ball grips and turns so quickly that it doesn't give the incoming batsmen any time to get used to the pace of the pitch.

At one point when RAshwin and Kuldeep Yadavwere getting the ball to rip off the surface and kept beating the batsmen, Jadeja was seen gesturing to Rohit Sharma to hand over the ball to him. Who better than him to know what he can do here on such a track.

For two months a year, when the IPL happens, there is a template masterminded by MS Dhoni that Chennai Super Kings stick with. Having stocked their squad with tweakers, they roll out pitches with plenty of assistance for their three spinners, especially those who bowl in line with the stumps. Barring the recently concluded IPL, where CSK opted for flat decks at the start, it is a template that has worked wonders for them.

It is not as if Australia were blinded by such conditions.

Since they landed here last Tuesday, they must have seen this coming. Every time they have come here for a practice session over the past week, they have seen a layer of grass shaved.