As Australia’s players and staff waited for the final wicket to fall in Nagpur, just over 30 overs after the innings began, the team’s leadership started the post-mortem for one of the most decisive Test losses in the nation’s history.
Captain Pat Cummins spoke with the batting assistant Michael Di Venuto, while behind him head coach Andrew McDonald sidled up next to selector on duty Tony Dodemaide.
There will be a lot for those four decision-makers to digest right now, but above all else they must confront a set of numbers that cannot be explained away simply by the accelerating nature of a day three Nagpur surface and some typically immaculate use of those conditions by Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
India’s thrashing of Australia continued a trend begun in Sri Lanka.Credit:Getty
At 2-204 on day one of the second Test in Galle last July, Australia seemed to be building a decent bedrock for this India assignment, having won the first Test and also emerged victorious on – admittedly much flatter – pitches in Pakistan.
But from the moment that Marnus Labuschagne was fooled by Prabath Jaysuriya and stumped, Australia’s batting has shown all the subcontinental stickability of Teflon, with 38 wickets falling for 579 runs: a wicket every 15.23 runs against Sri Lanka and India.
More so than this one innings in a single afternoon, that trend suggests a loss of the underpinnings of sound batting on turning but not completely treacherous pitches. In both the Galle match and this one, Australia were batted out of the game by technically sound opponents in Dinesh Chandimal, Rohit Sharma, Jadeja and Axar Patel.
The key to beating Australia in Asia is not to produce a terrible surface that will aid both sides equally. Instead, it is to prepare something tricky but playable, safe in the knowledge that its subtleties are more than likely to be lost on most touring players.
The key to beating Australia in Asia is not to produce a terrible surface that will aid both sides equally. Instead, it is to prepare something tricky but playable, safe in the knowledge that its subtleties are more than likely to be lost on most touring players.
In the frenzied two hours that saw Australia dismembered for 91, their second-lowest total against India, the hosts were as knowing as the tourists looked uncomprehending. Ashwin pitched his off-breaks perfectly into the rough on a fullish length outside off stump, daring batters to drive when he wasn’t threatening the stumps.
At the other end, Jadeja varied his arm path and angle on the crease to get the ball to do anything between turning and bouncing big and sliding on straight for the stumps: if not for a no-ball, he would have bowled Steve Smith in identical fashion in each innings.
Both Ashwin and Jadeja used side spun deliveries with a square seam, meaning some would hit the seam and bite, while others land closer to the leather and skip on straight. That same technique was fundamental to how Todd Murphy produced an outstanding debut for Australia, claiming 7-124 in contrast to Nathan Lyon.
Importantly for Australia to pull out of that recent batting death dive, whether on this tour or others in future, is the knowledge of how Murphy got there.
It wasn’t through good fortune or accident of technique that makes him more suited to Asia than Lyon or the Australian batters, but rather years of diligent training to be able to cope in both Australia and India with their contrasting pitches.
Alongside his mentor Craig Howard, Murphy has practised assiduously with different seam angles, arm paths and positions on the crease: his spell on the third morning to fool Jadeja into leaving a ball that hit off stump was a rare occasion when an Australian spinner matched an Indian counterpart for guile and craft.
India’s Ravindra Jadeja is bowled by Todd Murphy.Credit:Getty Images
Vital to Murphy’s education was a spin bowling focus at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, plus budget to send young spinners to the MRF Foundation in India. These included spin pitches at the centre created with imported soil from India.
Those programs, led by the former NCC coach Troy Cooley, were stripped away during COVID-19 by a Cricket Australia executive then intent on swingeing cuts. At a time when very little international travel was possible, the notion of a central curriculum to educate young players on overseas conditions seemed less of a priority for the moment.
In parallel, the NCC itself has been subject to downgrades, as state associations argue they have all they need to prepare young players at home.
As disquieting as the sight of Australia losing all 10 wickets in a single session in India may have been, it is equally troubling to realise that the building blocks that helped Murphy alone to look properly equipped for India no longer exist.
With precious World Test Championship points now on the line for them, foreign conditions are only likely to get more extreme in future, requiring ever more diligence to prepare for them even if the goal is to minimise the margin of defeat rather than win.
And while Cummins, Di Venuto, McDonald and Dodemaide may have it within their capacity to right the ship on this tour – after all, India recovered from being bowled out for 36 in Adelaide in the first Test of the previous Border-Gavaskar series – the wider picture also needs urgent attention.
