Australia's astonishing win in the first Test has sent shockwaves through India with calls from former greats for less spin-friendly pitches to be produced for the final three Tests in order to help the home side.
Former India captains Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly want to see more of the flat tracks on which the home side destroyed New Zealand, England and Bangladesh rather than the Mars-like surface unveiled in Pune.
Ganguly believes India will be "scared" to see another turning pitch after Australia showed them how to play in the difficult batting conditions. That there is now talk for local curators to give the batsmen a fair go is testament to Steve O'Keefe's mind-boggling performance, which reminded coach Darren Lehmann of Mitchell Johnson's destruction in Adelaide in the 2014/15 Ashes.
Leg-spin great Shane Warne may have misfired in his assessment of O'Keefe, but his prediction that an overcooked pitch would help Australia more than India was proven correct. Steve Smith said the pitch played into the the visitors' hands.
Having learnt from their failure in Sri Lanka, Australia's batsmen committed to playing for the straight ball knowing the ones which turned would spin too sharply to catch the edge. The Australians were surprised to see India allow themselves to be beaten on both sides of the bat, which made them susceptible to leg before wicket and brought the in-close catchers into the game.
While Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja remain a force to be reckoned with, they were outplayed by O'Keefe and Nathan Lyon.
"The difference between the earlier teams and this Australian team touring here was the accuracy by Steve O'Keefe and Nathan Lyon. If Australia's spinners keep bowling so accurately, India will be scared of preparing turning pitches," Ganguly told the India Today TV network.
"India must have been surprised with the way Australia's spinners bowled. It's not the first time India prepared turners. They believed their own spinners were more accurate than the Aussie spinners. The way the two Australian spinners bowled will make India think for the rest of the series."
Ganguly believed the result of the toss, which Australia won, played too big a part in the result.
"If India would have won the toss in this Test match the game could have been different. Don't leave it to winning tosses in Test cricket. Play on good pitches in Bangalore, Ranchi and Dharamsala," Ganguly said.
"Invariably these pitches would turn on days four and five, take the game till the end. Because when you prepare such pitches and the ball is turning square as a batsman you know your chances of scoring are very difficult. India's best chance would be to play on good pitches."
Gavaskar said India would be better suited in a high-scoring match, like the series against England where both sides regularly scored in excess of 400 in the first innings.
The victory in Pune is a tick for Australia's planning for this series, which involved a training camp in Dubai, after nine consecutive defeats in Asia and has given the side confidence they can have success in this part of the world.
"We trained a little bit different for this tour," Lehmann said. "Obviously what we've done in the past hasn't worked, so we knew we had to change up things a little bit – going to Dubai.
"Pushing the lads a lot harder than we have probably in the past, and the lads have been great to be fair – the way they've worked behind the scenes to try and get better as cricketers and try and improve their games in difficult conditions.
"We've got to back that performance up and keep putting them under pressure like we did in this Test match. That's going to be the challenge for the group."
