India's Ideological Struggle

GH watches the new regime in action

What happens in dressing rooms stays in dressing rooms - until it doesn’t, when there is usually a reason. Since going two-one down in Melbourne, all the talk round this Indian team has been not of its on-field form but its intramural machinations - the interactions of captain Rohit Sharma, coach Gautam Gambhir, seniors, juniors, officials, and journalists too. It might almost have been a relief for them to get back to cricket today. But only almost.

Morning commenced with lots of old-fashioned cricket Kremlinology, participation in the warm-ups being the new version of who was taking the salute during the May Day parade. Rohit approached the pitch like a leader, then formed part of the huddle as a follower, and finally dematerialised altogether, Yezhov-like, during the anthems.