Australia’s fortress has lost its aura but history weighs heavy on the tourists | Geoff Lemon

The hosts were unbeatable at the Gabba until India broke the spell but a series of changes mean they can start to rebuild the record in the third Test

It’s passing strange. In town ahead of the Australia-India Test, Brisbane feels as it always has: guys walking down Queen Street carrying boxes of mangoes, the Queensland humidity performing its ritual of luxuriant suffocation as the city’s air begrudgingly shifts along the snake-path of the river. The Gabba Test though, does not feel quite the same.

For three decades and more, this was where Australian teams were unbeatable. Pointed out with a heavy drumbeat of symbolism, the previous visiting winner was the great West Indies team of 1988. It took the best ever to achieve this feat, was the message. But that’s not the case any more.

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