Both sides have had plenty to say since the drawn first Test in Bangalore but having talked the talk, which team will be able to walk the walk in the second Test between India and Australia starting in Mohali on Friday.
And with queries hanging over Australian paceman Stuart Clark and Indian skipper Anil Kumble for vastly contrasting reasons, both teams may also be forced to take reshuffled bowling attacks into the Test.
It was a lack of strikepower from both teams that was primarily responsible for the first Test being drawn and the two arch-enemies could hardly wait to stick the boots into each other in the short build-up between the end of the first Test on Monday and Friday's opening to the second Test.
India has claimed that Australia's attack is incapable of taking 20 wickets with man of the match from the first Test in Indian paceman Zaheer Khan saying that Australia's modest spin attack of Victorian debutant Cameron White and New South Wales part-timer Michael Clarke held no fears for the home side.
Indian skipper Kumble has since gone further claiming Australia had plenty of time to bowl India out to secure victory on the fifth and final day of the first Test yet India easily held out for a draw in reaching 4-177.
"For all the talk about this aggressive champion side it might make sense for someone to ask why 83 overs on a fifth day pitch wasn't enough to finish the job," Kumble wrote in his newspaper column in India this week.
But what Kumble overlooks and what his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting has been quick to point out was that it the visitors who were the only team in a position to win the game on the final day.
And indeed after having reduced India to 7-232 in its first innings in reply to Australia's total of 430, the Aussies let a golden opportunity for victory slip away by allowing the home side's tail to wag sufficiently to get their score up to 360.
But Ponting believes India's bravado since the first Test is masquerading the home side's insecurities.
"I think they always try and talk themselves up," he told The Australian.
"It's just the sort of bravado and front that they're trying to put on."
The most surprising aspect of the first Test was how ineffective both spin attacks were on wickets usually tailor made for spin with Kumble putting in such a bad performance that his place in the team is under threat.
Kumble, who has just turned 38, went wicketless in the first Test for only the third time in his 131 Test career as the Indian quicks took 13 of the 16 Australian wickets to fall for the match.
Australia's spinners also took just three wickets between them for the Test but White, who rarely bowls himself at state level, shapes as the kind of player who will improve with more bowling.
But the Aussies too could be forced to make a change to their bowling attack with Clark in doubt with an elbow injury, paving the way for Victorian quick Peter Siddle to make his Test debut.
And if the early indications are correct, it could be pace which again has the biggest influence on Friday with recent heavy rain in Mohali meaning the likelihood of a lively wicket with plenty of assistance for the quicks.
And that will play into Australia's hands - even if Clark doesn't play - and if the world champions do get on top of India early again it would be most unlike Ponting's men to allow their prey to escape for a second straight match.