India have all but foiled Australia's 'smart-scheduling' plan

Australia played a smart 'scheduling' card even before the ongoing

Border Gavaskar Trophy

commenced a month ago, but India's riposte came in the first Test itself; and after three matches, the advantage has slightly shifted to the visitors' camp.
If India winning the series-opener in Perth made Australia re-think, their fightback to force a draw in Brisbane was like a boxer's jab on the bell, signalling end of round 'three'. In between, the second Test at Adelaide was always loaded in favour of the hosts who have lost a pink-ball day-nighter just once.
But the interesting inference looking at the venues of first three Tests is that Australia smartly picked their three fastest tracks in the country in the early summer, when the pitches are fresh and have not gone through the wear and tear by hosting Sheffield Shield games. The apparent plan was to not let Indian batters settle and maybe take a 2-0, if not 3-0, lead going into the last two Tests of the series on the less threatening

Melbourne

and Sydney pitches.

An added incentive targeted by Australia was to wear India's spearhead and major threat Jasprit Bumrah down by increasing his workload on pace-friendly tracks, which the Australian batters are habitually equipped to handle.
But it has proved to be a banana skin for the Aussies, who are making another attempt to end their 10-year wait to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Not only has Bumrah continued to breathe fire, taking 21 wickets in three Tests at a staggering average of 10.90, but also India have managed to thwart Australia's scheduling tactic to enter the Melbourne Test with the thought of playing two spinners. It reflects that the visitors have weathered the major threat by Australia's pace battery and will now look to come into their own.

But where Australia have scored a point is by denting the confidence of India's batters, who have fired as a unit only once when they scored 487/6 declared in the second innings at Perth, which included centuries by Yashasvi Jaiswal (161) and Virat Kohli (100*) and a half-century by KL Rahul (77).

Other than that, the Indian batters, including Jaiswal, Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, have failed to deliver. Rahul is the only one who has shown fight on a regular basis and has scored 235 runs in six innings to be India's top run-getter at this point.
Looking at how the series is placed, India are definitely looking forward to the last two matches at friendly venues -- Melbourne and Sydney, but the onus will be on Indian batters to deliver and back up the effort of Bumrah & Co when they wield the willow.