The Australian effort in Nagpur was nothing short of disgraceful. Making a combined score of 268 runs over two innings when losing by an innings and thirty-two runs. However, the effort in Delhi, when the Australians had hope going into the third day being 1-61 with a lead of 62, was the worse performance of any Australian Test cricket team that I have ever seen. The Australians were 2-85 with the two best batters in the world at the crease and a couple of hours later they were all out for 113.
A multitude of ludicrous and nonsensical shots saw the Australian middle order contribute just twenty-eight runs whilst losing seven wickets. Besides Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne who received incredibly good deliveries, you have to wonder what was going through the batsmen’s heads. On a Delhi pitch where the bounce was uneven, the Australian batsmen saw it fit to use the sweep shot as the main method of attack. It saw the back of Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Matt Renshaw, Alex Carey, and Patrick Cummins. And arguably, the most stupid part of it all is the fact that when Head and Labuschagne had the Indians on the ropes at the end of Day Two there was barely a sweep shot played.
I am not saying that Australia would have won this test match, but the tactics that were used never gave them a chance.
The selection of the squad should also be a point of contention. The Australian selectors thought that the best choice as the number six batsman was Peter Handscomb. They cited the fact that he was a good player of spin, yet did not bother to factor in the fact that his average in India is thirty. Usman Khawaja was selected as the opener. He averages twenty-six against the Indians in Australia. Did we think that was going to change in their own backyard? David Warner was selected again yet averaging thirty-one in Asia over twenty-two test matches.
Did Australia need to be braver?
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The other big question that will be on the lips of all Aussies at work on Monday morning will be, simply put, does this Australian team have any heart?
The fact of the matter is that over the last two seasons, the Australian team has not had a challenge. They took on a poor England team at home in the Ashes and won convincingly on their home deck, and then took care of the likes of the West Indies and the South Africans at home this summer. In both of their overseas tours, they were less than impressive.
They beat Pakistan 1-0 in a three-match series (all whilst nearly coughing up a lead of 506 in the final innings) and then drew 1-1 against Sri Lanka in a two-match series. Looking back at those results in the Subcontinent in 2022, it should not be a shock that the Indians are doing this to what must be said, is an incredibly fragile batting lineup.
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Regardless of any of that though, the Australian public has an expectation that their cricket team will ALWAYS be in for the fight. They expect that the batsmen will fight for their wicket, even more so in tough conditions when each run and each over is increasingly important. This expectation was what delivered the country with the likes of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Steve Waugh, and Michael Clarke. This Australian team outside of three players (one which is not the captain) has no players with the ability to fight and scrag for their wicket.
This series is over and the Border-Gavaskar trophy will stay with the Indians and deservedly so. Something does need to change within the Australian set up though. If Justin Langer was sacked because he lost the playing group, are these same players saying Andrew McDonald DOES have the playing group? I think it would be a hard case to mount based on the last month of cricket.
It is as simple as this. Whoever instructed the Australian batsmen to bat the way they did on Day Three of this test match, if it is a coach, must be sacked. If it is a player of influence in the dressing room, they must never be listened to again when discussing team tactics.
The three words that come to mind when I think about this Australian team are weak, embarrassing, and flawed.