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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Geoff Lemon in Brisbane

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

Pat Cummins celebrates taking a wicket for Australia against India
Australia will call on their star-studded pace attack against India in the third cricket Test starting on Saturday at the Gabba in Brisbane. Photograph: Paul Kane/Getty Images

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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