Forget history

Ganguly - no point worrying about Australia's record © Getty Images

Ridiculous as it might sound, India's cricketers would do well to follow in Tony Galento's footsteps when they walk out onto the 'Gabba turf for the first Test against Australia. Galento was the heavyweight boxer who crossed the Atlantic for a fight, and muttered "I'll moida da bum" when asked what he thought of William Shakespeare.

Such ignorance is exactly what Team India needs ahead of perhaps the toughest challenge in all of professional sport. If the players take a look at the records, already-fragile confidence would take another pummelling because these are facts and figures that you don't want to know.

What good does it do anyone to realise that Australia haven't lost a home series since 1993, to know that they have won 42 of 59 Tests on home soil since? How does it help India's cause to be aware that the last team to win a Test match that mattered in Australia was a Dean Headley-inspired England at Melbourne (Boxing Day Test, 1998)?

The last thing this Indian team needs is a preponderance of advice from their predecessors. Three wins in 28 Tests - two of those against a B-Grade team led by Bobby Simpson in 1977-78 - isn't indicative of a winning formula. In fact, the last time India won a Test in Australia [Melbourne, February 1981], wooden tennis racquets and Mac the Mouth - Sachin Tendulkar's hero - were in vogue.

Nor can India take any solace from their previous visits to the 'Gabba. In 1947-48, Australia made 382, and yet won by an innings and 226 runs, thanks to Ernie Toshack's scarcely believable match figures of 11 for 31. Twenty years later, ML Jaisimha - fresh off the flight - and Chandu Borde almost engineered a famous victory, only for a fragile tail to fall 39 short. And the last time they played there, Manoj Prabhakar's unremarkable 54 not out was the highest score as India were thrashed by ten wickets.

Australia have won ten and drawn four matches at Brisbane since their last defeat there, in 1988-89 when Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh were more than fond memories. The record is even more formidable under Steve Waugh's captaincy - 21 wins in 25 home Tests, and not one completed innings under 200.

Some would say that such intimidating stats should serve as motivation to Indian players eager to set the record straight. But what is motivation, anyway? Here's what Clive Woodward, the architect of England's magnificent rugby union side, thinks. "I think the word 'motivation' is the biggest load of bollocks I've ever come across," he said recently. "The only way you motivate a team is very simple: if you get the right people in this room, the right people on the bus tomorrow, the right people in the changing-room, motivation just takes care of itself ..."

Woodward and England had history of their own to surmount when they played in Melbourne last June, not having had a sniff of victory in ten previous attempts on Australian soil. They won that World Cup warm-up largely because they played to their strengths, while exploiting Australia's frailties.

The only way to beat Australia is to play like them, to focus on your performance rather than worry about what the opposition might do. Australia's cricketers function like predators. They smell fear and hesitation, as South Africa discovered to their cost in the grotesque mismatch that was sold to the gullible as cricket's summit clash. If India go into games bearing the burden of history, apprehensive about their fate, they will be slaughtered. The diffident don't survive in these environs.

Under Waugh, Australia have scored at 3.77 runs an over on home turf, and picked up early wickets with monotonous regularity. Any team aspiring to match them must have a strategy to cope with that double whammy. Michael Vaughan and Brian Lara made runs in Australia because they played as the locals do, with determination, flair and ruthlessness. A safety-first mindset will get you something else - front-row seats to watch a hiding to nothing.

In the week leading up to the first Test, India have the luxury of choice. Will they kick and struggle, and earn respect in the process, or embrace defeat meekly as has become the norm for teams touring Australia? They can either battle like Woodward's lions did - with nary a thought for what had gone before - or let the weight of history crush them.