GAMBHIR TIME DOWN UNDER

In coach's biggest assignment since taking over, results may decide direction of India team

- GOMESH S

'YUGON ki ladai (Battle for the ages)' reads the screengrab of Tuesday's newspaper front page with a massive portrait of Virat Kohli in the middle. One might assume that it's a regional Hindi daily from India, but it's not. From The Daily Telegraph to The Australian to The Courier-Mail, it's the page one of almost every print subsidiary owned by News Cor Australia. Yes, you read that right. As you skim through this one here, every single person in Australia will be greeted with a front page that reads in Hindi.

If there ever was a scale to measure the popularity of an Indian Summer Down Under, this should be it. It's not just about cricket, the sport, but what an Indian tour brings to the table. A fierce rivalry, a dominance that has led to backto-back defeats for the home side across eight years. And of course, the revenue and attention that comes with every Indian visit. This Australian summer, it all seems to have gone up a notch. After all, the last time Australia beat India in a Test series was more than a decade ago.