The Gabba in Brisbane is only one of two Test venues in Australia, apart from Sydney's SCG, where drop-in pitches have yet to make an entry.

Like all other grounds across the country, this too is used for Aussie Rules Football - or just 'footy' - and the maroon and yellow seats that dominate a smattering of blue are a gesture towards the colours of the local footy side, the Brisbane Lions.

The Gabba is also the scene of India's most famous Test victory overseas, against all odds and expectations and hopes, in January 2021. With a severely depleted side minus regular captain Virat Kohli, the entire first-choice pace attack, all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin and phlegmatic batter Hanuma Vihari, India were ripe for the picking at a ground where Australia were unbeaten since 1988.

Yet, with a bowling group that had a combined experience of four Tests, and a young batting line-up marshalled by two stars of the future, India conjured a miracle. Set 328 for victory, they rode on the ebullience of Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant and the never-say-die attitude of Cheteshwar Pujara to score a three-wicket win that gave them a second successive 2-1 success Down Under.

Gill and Pant are semi-seniors this time around and there are others from that XI on this tour - Rohit Sharma is now the captain, Mohammed Siraj, the leader of the bowlers then with two Test caps, is a wonderful understudy to Jasprit Bumrah - but the heroics of 2021 would perhaps have been the last thing on their minds when they fronted up for training on Thursday afternoon under bright skies dotted by scattered clouds, with a cold wind sweeping through the ground.

India have more serious matters to address than lapse into nostalgia and feelgood. Their greatest letdown has been their batting - they have topped 200 just once in the first innings of their last five Tests - and much of the effort at training, two days before the start of the third Test against Australia, entailed getting their projected top six to spend plenty of time hitting balls.

Virat and Bumrah try to find answers to different questions

In Brisbane, like in most of Australia actually, it isn't always about hitting balls. Sometimes, the prudent course of action is to let the ball sail by outside off, especially when one is new to the crease, because the bounce, while pronounced, is trustworthy. True, runs can't be scored without laying bat on ball, but early exchanges necessitate care and circumspection, getting a hang of the conditions and the bowling and tiring the bowlers out, to the extent possible.

The corridor outside off is generally what holds a magnetic attraction to the outside edge. Few have been lured by its charm more often than Kohli, with 30 Test centuries but also guilty of succumbing to temptation and playing at balls he can well leave alone when he has just come out to bat. More than most of his top-order colleagues, the former captain made a conscious effort to desist from flirting at balls on the fourth and fifth-stump lines, focussing on the discipline that he must be hoping doesn't desert him at game time.

In their only full training stint before the third Test, starting on Saturday, India left nothing behind in the changing room. Their nine quicks - six in the squad, three travelling reserves - bowled in three separate nets in batches of threes. They were supplemented by the trio of throwdown specialists, among them one left-armer from Sri Lanka, using the slinger to good effect, and by the assortment of support staff adept at using the contraption with practised ease.

KL Rahul was the first to hit the nets and the last to leave, fussing over his technique for more than an hour and a half and determined to show that his penchant for playing shots in Adelaide was but an aberration. Rohit has ceded opening duties to Rahul in team interest and Rahul must be feeling the pressure to step up. That's not always the worst thing. All indications at this stage are that Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal will continue to open.

There has been speculation in the Australian media about Jasprit Bumrah's fitness after he received treatment to his groin during the Aussie first innings in Adelaide, but the pace genius showed no cause for concern, ramping it up during his skirmishes with his leading batters. To see Bumrah give them a working over made for terrific watching. It looks as if he and Siraj will have Akash Deep, not Harshit Rana, for support at the Gabba, where Washington Sundar made his debut four years back and is set to reclaim his place from Ashwin, his senior Tamil Nadu mate.