Australia’s batsmen need to find their footing against the Indian spinners who menaced them into a crushing first Test innings loss, skipper Pat Cummins said Saturday.
The tourists were skittled out for 91 in just over two hours on day three to go down by an innings and 132 runs in Nagpur and trail the four-match series 1-0.
Spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shared 15 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall on a pitch where the hosts posted 400 all out.
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“A lot of it was good bowling,” Cummins said on his team’s batting collapse. “Two masters of their craft, fresh legs, they bowled really well,” he added. “I don’t think much is going to change the next couple of games. That’s what we’re going to come against so we have to find better methods.”
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Steve Smith stood unbeaten on 25 while the Australian batting fell flat in just 32.3 overs.
Marnus Labuschagne (49), Smith (37), Peter Handscomb (31) and wicketkeeper Alex Carey (36) showed some spark in the first innings before Australia were bowled out for 177 after tea on day one.
“You saw Smithy and Alex Carey at times put the pressure back on the bowlers,” said Cummins.
“I think it takes a bit of bravery, it’s easier said than done. Again, that will be the conversation this week. If we get the same conditions, same bowlers, what are we going to do differently?”
“We’ve had a really good run the last 12 months,” he added. “There hasn’t been many losses in that change room. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel. It’s just tweaking different approaches to how we play and maybe particular methods.”
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Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed 450 Test wickets in the first innings and now has 457 in the bag.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins called Ashwin a “world class bowler”, especially at home, and “one of the all time great Indian bowlers”.
“It’s like captaining Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc in Australia,” Rohit said. “When you have quality of Axar, Jadeja, and Ash, having played in India for so many years, playing on pitches like these, its always a blessing,” he added. “The conditions are there, yes, but you need to exploit them as well and conditions are for both teams. They know which areas to hit, how to keep applying pressure.”
PRAISE FOR ‘FANTASTIC’ MURPHY
Debutant spinner Todd Murphy was the lone bright spot with figures of 7-124 in an otherwise lacklustre show and Cummins was all praise for the 22-year-old.
“Todd was fantastic,” said Cummins.
“He walked straight in and looked like he belonged at this level. With only four frontline bowlers we knew that second spinner was key and he was fantastic.”
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World number one Australia came in to the Test with much talk on the bone-dry Nagpur pitch, which some Aussie pundits claimed had been “doctored” by selective watering of the deck.
But Cummins said the pitch offered “no surprises”.
On the injury front, Cummins all but ruled out pace bowler Josh Hazlewood for the second Test in New Delhi starting Friday.
But he kept the door open for all-rounder Cameron Green and quick bowler Mitchell Starc after all three players missed the opener.
“Greeny’s a bit of a wait-and-see. We’re still hoping. He’s had a couple of good hits out here. His bowling is pretty good, so over the next couple of days we’ll assess it.”
