Sydney, January 2012? Yes, but also Centurion, December 2010.

After that innings defeat, India travelled to Durban, to face what was supposed to be another trial by fire on the quickest wicket in South Africa. Nobody thought they could win that Test match. And yet, somehow, they did.

In the situation India are in now, drawing parallels between Durban and Perth might seem like fanciful straw-clutching. But if straws must be clutched, this isn’t a bad one to grab onto.

For a start, bowler-friendly wickets tend to narrow the gap between the two sides. This was certainly true during the first Test at the MCG, where there wasn’t much of a difference between the bowling attacks. It was hard to separate the two sides till India disintegrated on Day 4.

A day before the third Test, both captains said that they might consider deploying an all-pace attack should the curator decide to leave the pitch grassy. Whether or not this comes to pass, it’s still fairly certain that the WACA wicket will have more in it for the duration of the match than the SCG strip, which flattened out after Day 1.

After Centurion, India took two positives into the Durban Test. One was Zaheer Khan’s return to match-fitness, and the other was the confidence gained by the batsmen in the second innings. There are similarities in that sense too.

Zaheer bowled beautifully at the SCG to have Australia stuttering at 37 for three, and created something out of thin air whenever he came on with the old ball at the MCG. His fitness and form are encouraging. With a little more help from the wicket, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav could provide him much better support than they did at the SCG. It’s an honest assessment to say that these two aren’t half as good as they could be if they learned to be consistent with their direction, but they still remain dangerous in favourable conditions.

The second innings at the SCG, meanwhile, brought positive returns for four of the top six. Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman scored important half centuries, in the context of confidence gained. Rahul Dravid was bowled by a beauty, but played some sparkling shots just before he got out, suggesting that a big innings might be around the corner. Sachin Tendulkar, as he has done throughout this tour, looked in superb touch.

Not firing in unison

It’s not happened often in the recent past that India’s batting has fired in unison, a major difference between their not-too-long-ago era of competing strongly overseas and their current run of six away defeats. Four years ago, the last time they were in Perth, all of India’s senior batsmen made important contributions. Dravid and Tendulkar set the platform for a competitive first innings total with a 139-run partnership on Day One, while Laxman shut Australia out of the game with a third-innings 79, coming in with the match still open, with India 125/5, their lead only 243. His knock helped India set a 400-plus target. Australia made 340.

Then, as now, India came in 2-0 down. But Perth brought about a change in fortunes, sparking off a run of eight matches that saw India beat Australia five times and draw thrice. Things might be different now, but India must believe that they aren’t too different. The batsmen may have grown older, but retain their eye and skill. The pace attack is perhaps better now than 2008. It isn’t too far-fetched to think that they could exploit the WACA better than the Australians, in this one Test match. It happened in Durban; it could happen again.