Delhi: Australian cricket greats Allan Border and Matthew Hayden were scathing of Australia’s reckless approach, as captain Pat Cummins admitted his team had got it wrong after a disastrous collapse which cost the tourists the chance of conquering the final frontier.
In a further blow, spin sensation Todd Murphy is battling a minor side issue, while David Warner is still struggling after suffering concussion and a hairline fracture of the elbow, as changes loom for the second half of the tour.
Pat Cummins and his teammates have plenty of thinking to do ahead of the third Test.Credit:Getty Images
Matthew Renshaw is out of form, Ashton Agar is low on confidence and out of favour, while leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson is likely to return to the squad after returning home to be at the birth of his child. But Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are a chance to play in the third Test.
Donning a pink hat, Hayden brought a broom onto the Test strip to film a segment for Star Sports after Australia had played into the hand of India’s spin wizards by sweeping their way to oblivion.
Though Cummins said the sweep shot was not part of their strategy, six players perished to the stroke – conventional or reverse – including superstar batter Steve Smith, who endured one of the worst matches of his career.
With no hope of regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the best the visitors can hope for is squaring the series, though averting a 4-0 whitewash may be a more realistic aim after another defeat inside three days.
That would at least book the Cummins’ team a berth in the World Test Championship final in London before defending the urn against the turbocharged Brendon McCullum-coached England.
Matthew Hayden, pictured in his pink hat earlier in the series.Credit:Getty Images
After their poor performance in Nagpur, Australia vowed to take a more proactive strategy with the bat only to overcorrect to crumble from 1-65 to be all out for 113. It included a crushing hour where they lost 8-28 in 74 balls.
Hayden, who used the sweep with great effect in his coming of age tour in the fabled 2001 series, was critical of Australia’s use of the horizontal bat shot on a pitch where the ball stayed low. He said there was a fine line between being positive and “reckless”.
“[You] have to trust your defence, every player who plays on the subcontinent,” Hayden said on the commentary after Cummins was out first ball slog sweeping.
“When you hack across the line, you have to give yourself some chance. He’s gone in with a premeditated plan to sweep ball one instead of understanding the defence has to be there. Build on it.”
An angry Border slammed the team for their tactics.
“I’m disappointed, I’m shell shocked – angry about the way we went about our work today,” he said on Fox Cricket.
“It was panicky, frenetic batting. No one got in there and tried to stem the flow with some good defensive cricket. They were getting out playing sweep shots, reverse sweeps, playing shots to just about every ball. You just can’t get away with that on that sort of track.”
Cummins conceded they had “overplayed” their hand in attempting to shift the pressure back onto the bowlers.
“I’m probably as much to blame as anyone else there,” Cummins said. “Two big things we talk about is the tempo of the game and the method. Maybe at times a little bit too high tempo.
“I’d rather be high tempo than low tempo though, to be honest, if those wickets are being difficult but maybe the method went a little bit away from what we planned to do at times.
“I thought they bowled really well, it’s not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods.
“Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don’t think there’s any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross-batted shots which might not be our preferred method.”
Rohit said India had panicked on the second night by changing their fields too often when Travis Head took charge, but was confident Australia’s approach would contribute to their own downfall.
“We keep it there, we keep it tight, and let the batters make that mistake and I could sense it that they wanted to play that way,” Rohit said of his advice to the spinners.
“And that wicket was not where you could just come out and keep playing shots. You got to find balance and try and put them under pressure and that is what we wanted to try and do this morning. Just keep it tight. If they’re playing some shots so be it.”
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