A familiar narrative for India

Overlook the jarring text and spare a moment to sift through these brief scores.

Lord's, 2011: England 127/2; Trent Bridge, 2011: England 221, India 24/1; Edgbaston, 2011: India 224, England 84/0; The Oval, 2011: England 75/0; MCG, 2011: Australia 227/6; SCG, 2012: India 191, Australia 116/3; the WACA, 2012: India 161, Australia 149/0; Adelaide Oval, 2012: Australia 335/3; The Wanderers, 2013: India 255/5; Kingsmead, December 2013: India 181/1; Eden Park, 2014: New Zealand 329/4; Basin Reserve, 2014: 192, India 100/2; Trent Bridge, 2014: India 259/4; Lord's, 2014: India 290/9; The Rose Bowl, 2014: England 247/2; Old Trafford, 2014: India 152, England 113/3; The Oval, 2014: India 148, England 62/0.

These are the end-of-play scores for the first day of each of India's overseas Test matches since they ill-fated tour of England in 2011. And two of those Test matches began with rain-curtailed days, mind you. As the scores at stumps for most of those opening days suggest, India were the team playing catch-up. It will not surprise many that India lost 13, drew three and one won of those 17 Tests.

Across this sequence, the Indian team has too often resembled the seven dwarfs from the fairy tale Snow White, whistling their way to work. Plenty of hard yards put in and some genuine good patches of success to show for it, but still far from being a side that can consistently compete overseas. And now, at the Adelaide Oval on day one of the 2014-15 tour of Australia, India are staring at another uphill task after watching Australia make 354/6, of which 145 came in 163 balls to David Warner who, until he threw it away, looked set for a double-century and 60 to Michael Clarke before he had to leave the field with a sore back.

Lose the toss, bowl insufficiently with the two new balls and an old one, allow the opposition to put up a big total and an opener score a dominating century - it was an all-too-familiar pattern for India away from home on day one in Adelaide. At least there were no dropped catches on Tuesday.

Visiting teams have had worse beginnings to series - just ask Nasser Hussain - but today's play was another hard one for India. Apart from Ishant Sharma, incidentally the least bowled Indian pacer coming into this Test, the bowlers were all under-prepared and the lack of potency, if it had not done so earlier, will have sparked terminal concerns. From the time Warner took guard, runs were donated by India's new-ball pair of Mohammed Shami and Varun Aaron and the debutant legspinner Karn Sharma, though he improved as the day went on, looked undercooked.

With the Adelaide Oval surface not offering swing or seam to the new ball, India's three-pronged pace attack needed to hit the right lengths early on but Ishant aside, could not. Shami and Aaron were given the new ball and conceded 81 in 13 overs, with Warner able to drive on the rise without worry of the ball doing much.

Warner's mood was established early in the morning when he flayed seven of his first 15 deliveries faced to the boundary, three of which came in Aaron's opening over and three in Shami's second. Shami and Aaron bowled from around the stumps to the left-handed Warner, but still he was afforded enough width to cut and drive and there were also ample opportunities to tuck and flick.

Shami had one good over in his first spell of 5-0-30-0 when he troubled left-hander Chris Rogers, while Aaron went for 23 in his first two overs and 28 in his second spell of six overs, having a casual shot from Shane Watson to owe for his only success in a what was a poor day. There was no plan B for Shami and Aaron and this meant that Virat Kohli, on his first day as Test captain, had to fall back on Ishant as much as he could.

Ishant - in his eighth Test on Australian soil - was the stand-out bowler and in truth, without his control across his first four spells, it would have been worse for India. He removed the leaden-footed Chris Rogers cheaply and probed away off a good length, getting a faint bit of movement away on occasion to keep Mitchell Marsh in check and against the free-stroking Warner, Ishant gave up 16 runs from 41 deliveries. He carried India all day long but cannot be expected to do it all on his own.

Karn Sharma, given an India cap ahead of R Ashwin (21 Tests) and Ravindra Jadeja (12), was easily lapped by Warner who took 42 runs off 56 balls faced from the 26-year-old before he deposited a tossed up delivery straight to deep midwicket during the final session. That moment of over-confidence did for Warner on 145, looking for a six off Karn Sharma after swatting consecutive fours off Murali Vijay's innocuous offspin, but normal service was restored as Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh put on 87 in 28 overs. The pair handled Karn Sharma's leg breaks and googles with ease, Smith in particular dominating with twinkle-toed brilliance as he drove through the offside and bunted down the ground to leg.

With the new ball, India's fast bowlers, Ishant included, veered onto the pads too much to allow Smith and Marsh collect runs as the shadows stretched across the sparkling new Adelaide Oval. Aaron's liveliest delivery of the day got rid of Marsh and the wickets of the nightwatchman Nathan Lyon and Brad Haddin to Shami shortly before stumps gave India some lift at the end of a very tough day, but the fear is that they have lost too much ground already.

In the field too they were too lethargic, with too many fielders diving over the ball. There were also a couple run-out chances missed, adding to the impression of a team perennially in transition since 2012 and without much to fall back on. And that, in a nutshell, has been their failing throughout a miserable run of form away from home in the last three-and-a-half years.

Comparisons with the 2011-12 tour of Australia will become tiresome - or are they already? - but to avert another 0-4 rout, something drastic is required from India in all departments. Winning in Australia is challenging enough without conceding dangerous head-starts, and by letting the hosts get to a dominant position the tourists - Smith is 72 not out - have not done themselves too many favours.