While the Sydney game is just the first of two T20s and a three-round-three-finals tri-series, the word on the street is that India’s performance during this February 1 game against a brand new looking Australian side will be a tell tale sign of how this second leg of their stay will unfold. Simple is how the Sydneysiders like to keep things, examples of which burst out of every orifice of this multi-cultural cauldron of a city.

The central area of Sydney is called Central, the fish market is known as Fish Market and the Chinese immigrants reside and do business out of a place called, you guessed it, Chinatown. But more than any where else, Sydney’s caricature is best painted down at the gorgeous Darling Harbour — where a monorail snakes under the state-of-the-art skyline, and over the serene Tasman Sea wharf. A real life Gotham City in bricks and mortar.

Although this city will not host India again till the February 26, Dhoni & Co will be glad that at least one of their key fixtures against Australia in the tri-series will be played at the SCG. It was here that the Indians began their summit to the top of the world in the 2008 CB Series by winning the first final, a match that featured a fluent century by a certain SR Tendulkar.

Now both Tendulkar and the three-nation format in Australia are returning after a space of one and four years respectively, but there is no drum-roll by the locals to greet either, considering what unfolded when the badwagon last hopped onto these lands a month ago. It was here where it all first went terribly wrong for Team India during the white-flanelled formats, and it will be here where it could all begin to go terribly right for the side under the pump. But that’s just how Sydney is, the land that always offers to return one’s lost pride.

Wet pitches frustrate team India