After a humbling defeat in Nagpur and questions flying left, right and centre about team selection, Australia's tour of India moves to the capital Delhi, where the tourists face another daunting prospect at one of India's most dominant Test venues. 

Australia's innings and 132-run defeat in the first Test, where spin played such a huge role in bowling Australia out for its lowest ever total against India in India, will give the hosts confidence that they can just repeat the formula throughout the tour.

That and the fact that Australia has never won a four-Test series having gone behind 1-0.

Australia has called up spin reinforcements of its own in the form of Queensland left arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann, but the real question will be whether Australia's batters can turn around their form to rise to the challenge posed by Ravichanrdan Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.

Those Indian spinners took 16 of India's 20 wickets in the first Test — and it would surprise nobody if that pattern was repeated in Delhi.

Fortress Delhi

The Feroz Shah Kotla ground — now known as the Arun Jaitley Stadium — is India's second-oldest cricket ground and was named after the nearby 14th century fort built by the Sultanate of Delhi.

That the ground is named after a fortress is apt, given India's record at the venue in Test matches.

It's been a little over 35 years since India has tasted defeat at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground — making it one of India's most formidable Test venues.

It has to be said, India has only played 12 Tests there in that time, the most recent coming in December 2017 — a high-scoring draw with Sri Lanka that was plagued by reports of smog that led to complaints from Sri Lankan players.

As ABC Sport commentator Corbin Middlemas noted on his arrival in the capital last week, the smog could play a role in this Test too — although fortunately air quality appears to have improved in the past couple of days.

All up, India has been beaten just six times in 34 Tests played at the venue — but all six of those defeats came between 1959 and 1987 — ancient history as far as modern cricket goes.

Australia were the first overseas team to win a Test in Delhi back in 1959. when Richie Benaud took match figures of 8-76 off just shy of 50 overs and Neil Harvey made 114 with the bat.

Since then, Australia has lost three and drawn three — most recently losing by six wickets in 2013, when Jadeja took match figures of 7-98 and the only Australian to pass 50 with the bat was, incredibly, Peter Siddle — twice.

Nathan Lyon took 7-94 in the first innings of that match as 29 of the 34 wickets to fall went to the spinners.

Things haven't been all good for India in Delhi though.

In ODI cricket, India has won just one of its past three matches and has just one win in three T20Is at the venue as well.

In 2009, an ODI match with Sri Lanka at the venue was abandoned due to an unsafe pitch, which saw the venue banned from hosting international cricket for 12 months. 

Sri Lanka were also the team that complained about the air quality in 2017.

The ground has also had its run ins with wildlife, with the 2008 Test against Australia marked by an extraordinary moment on day three when a swarm of bees forced everyone in the middle to dive to the ground.

India's impressive record in Delhi has drawn optimistic comparisons to Australia's own Test fortress the Gabba, which was, until 2021, just as impregnable to opposition teams.

Australia were unbeaten for just over 32 years in Brisbane, a run of 31 Tests since the West Indies won in 1988 (using largely the same team that beat India in Delhi the year before, by the way) until India broke that drought so spectacularly in 2021.

The comparison to that Gabba record may just be an attempt to tempt fate — but there are other comparisons.

India were humiliated in Adelaide in the first Test of that series, getting bowled out for just 36 as Australia won by eight wickets.

Despite that humiliation, India did not lose another Test and won the series 2-1 with that drought-ending victory in Brisbane.

Food for thought, perhaps.

Will Australia make changes?

The elephant in the selection room for the last Test was the omission of Travis Head, with the South Australian's struggles against spin in the subcontinent counting against him despite his career-best form during the Australian summer rocketing him up to fourth in the ICC Test batter rankings.

Head's selection may well depend on other personnel being available though, with Cameron Green the key to creating balance in the side.

Indications suggest Green will miss out in Delhi, but Mitch Starc is raring to go after his own finger injury and could replace Scott Boland, despite the Victorian paceman impressing with his economy in Nagpur and largely out-performing his skipper. 

Todd Murphy will have done enough with his seven wickets on debut to retain his place and will almost certainly partner Nathan Lyon.

In Nagpur, a big fuss was made of how India prepared the pitch for the left arm spinners to execute best to Australia's left-handed batters.

Does that mean Australia needs a left arm spinner in their side?

"I think consistently we've seen over there [in India] the power of having a left-arm finger spinner," Ed Cowan told the Grandstand Cricket Podcast.