ON THURSDAY, in the Chinna-swamy stadium in Bangalore, Australia’s cricketers take on India for the first time since the sides scrapped, stropped and swore their way through one of the most acrimonious tours in history. The Sydney Test in January, as unsavoury a game as has been played, nearly led to the tour being abandoned.

Yet this week promises to be sweetness and light. Sledging will be scarcer than a smiling banker. Iffy umpiring decisions will be accepted with stoicism. They say jaw-jaw is better than war-war and, in healing this fractured relationship, money has been doing the silver-tongued talking.

First came the Indian Premier League (IPL). Plenty of Australians signed up for the big dollars, which meant they were sharing dressing rooms with Indians for whom they had previously had little sympathy and scant understanding. At a stroke, a cultural chasm narrowed. Then came the Champions League. Ignoring England’s promise of Middle East riches, Australia, India and South Africa struck a deal to own jointly this Twenty20 world championship for domestic teams and sold the TV rights for £500m over 10 years.

Since the Australians arrived in India, two more deals have been sealed. First, Cricket Australia revealed that it was planning an Australian Premier League, closely based on the IPL, and that India had agreed to its top stars taking part. Second, Australia, India and South Africa announced plans for a twice-yearly Twenty20 tri-series. Mumbai and Mel-bourne are practically joined at the hip. The Indian board, of course, is king. In the Champions League deal it claimed a 50% stake because it has the commercial markets that generate the serious cash. The Australians and South Africans hang on to the coat-tails of Lalit Modi, India’s most powerful administrator, in the hope that there will be something in it for them; so far they have not been disappointed. Australia have never made as much money out of the game as perhaps they ought. Geographically isolated, they struggle to exploit global markets and perhaps their marketing executives could have been more savvy.

Critics of Cricket Australia accuse it of “prostituting” itself to India and few people doubt that the Australians have sacrificed an independent voice at the International Cricket Council (ICC). Say what you like about the England and Wales Cricket Board, it is doing the game a favour in its deals with Sir Allen Stanford and the West Indies board by trying to build a faction within the ICC that does not slavishly do Modi’s bidding.

The question is whether Australia’s love-in with all things Indian is about to have consequences on the field. An answer may come in Bangalore. Ricky Ponting’s team will be without Andrew Symonds, who was not selected after going AWOL during the recent series against Bangladesh. No great loss, one might think, after his central part in the falling-out between the two sides, but some people suspect he was overlooked chiefly to remove a player who presented a potential flashpoint on more than one front (Symonds was racially baited by Indian crowds on his last visit).

At the same time, Symonds’s head may have been turned by the IPL’s money. His contract, £695,000 for a full season, made him the best-paid foreigner. When a scheduled tour of Pakistan looked as if it might get between the Australians and the IPL, he spoke out against the tour on security grounds. But Symonds is the team’s best allrounder and Australia need him, especially as he would have provided valuable back-up in the spin department, which has been creakier than an old shed door since Shane Warne retired.

Shane Watson, the man chosen to deputise for Symonds, has been struck by a virus and missed the final warm-up in Hyderabad. If Australia go into the first Test without Watson, they really will be sorry Symonds is not around.

Ian Chappell, a former Australia captain, says the team has not been this vulnerable for 12 years. Since January 2007, Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and Stuart MacGill have retired. Much depends on the veteran trio of Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee. But each has had problems. Lee’s marriage broke down. Hayden damaged an achilles playing in the IPL, while Ponting has had surgery on a wrist. Hayden has a formidable record in India, but Ponting has never made Test runs there. Surely, his supporters argue, this will be his time.

Spinners are not the only bowlers who win Tests in India - South Africa reminded everyone of that earlier this year - but it would be surprising if, in four matches, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh did not once decisively outbowl Jason Krejza and part-timer Michael Clarke.

Krejza, a 25-year-old off-spinner, is virtually unknown outside Australia and not much known there. He is on the verge of a first cap because leg-spinner Bryce McGain, aged 36 and about as mobile as John McCain, is injured. But the leg-spinning allrounder Cameron White is flying out to reinforce the squad and could even play on Thursday.

Krejza was only supposed to be along for the ride. He spoke of his hunger for battle, probably not thinking he’d see action. Thrust into the warm-up, he was pulverised by two youngsters who can’t even make the India team. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made centuries; Krejza’s 20 wicket-less overs cost 123. Fortunately for the visitors, Bangalore pitch-es tend to have bounce, which should encourage Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson.

India are keeping faith with their ageing masters despite their humiliation by Ajantha Mendis in Sri Lanka. This could be the last hurrah for Sachin Tendulkar (who needs 77 runs to become the heaviest scorer in Test history), Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

Others will wait to see what wounds are inflicted. South Africa soon face Australia in back-to-back series and will dream of beating them for the first time in a generation. England can gain, whatever the result. If India lose, the old guard may be gone by the time England play them next month. If Australia are humbled, hopes will be raised for the Ashes. But Australia’s obituary has often been written. On the field, they still know how to take most of the tricks.

Australia’s new boys in India

JASON KREJZA (AGED 25, 0 TESTS)
With Bryce McGain injured, off-spinner Krejza, left, is in line for a debut in Bangalore, despite his mauling in the warm-up. His first-class wickets cost almost 50 and he has never taken a first-class five-for. Son of a Czech footballer and Polish mother

PETER SIDDLE (AGED 23, 0 TESTS)
Promising young bowler who swings the ball at pace but chronic shoulder trouble has limited him to 11 first-class appearances. Took 33 wickets in five Pura Cup matches in 2007-08. Grew up in rural Victoria, where he became a competitive woodchopper

DOUG BOLLINGER (AGED 27, 0 TESTS)
Good judges rate him potentially the best left-arm quick in Australia ahead of Mitchell Johnson.

Took 45 wickets at 15.4 apiece for New South Wales last season.

Has also played for Worcestershire