Melbourne: Former captain Michael Clarke has pointed out the mistakes made by the Australian team in the first two Test matches against the Indian cricket team.
The Australian cricket team is touring India and playing the 4-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Australia lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs. Subsequently, in the 2nd Test match that ended yesterday in Delhi, they lost by 6 wickets.
In these two Test matches, the Australian team did not hold even for 3 days. The batting strategies used by the team’s batsmen against spin have also come under heavy criticism. The batsmen of the Australian team played sweeps and reverse sweet shots on the pitches where the balls came low. The lack of fighting spirit from the team’s batsmen at any stage in both the matches has become a topic of discussion.
Also, the Australian team skipped the practice match on the tour of India. Instead, it set up anti-spinning pitches near Bangalore and conducted batting practice in a different manner. But none of this helped Australia’s batsmen in the first two Tests.
Australia’s dream of recapturing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been dashed by two successive defeats. And if they fail in the remaining two Test matches, the Australian team is put in a critical position where they may face problems in advancing to the finals of the ICC World Test Championship.
In this case, former captain Michael Clarke has pointed out the mistakes made by the Australian team in the tour of India. In this regard, he said:
I am not at all surprised to see the performance of the Australian cricket team. Because Australia did not participate in the practice match. This is a big mistake. There should have been at least one practice game to get used to the conditions in India. There was also a huge mistake in the team selection for the first Test.
Sweep shots are not ideal when opening an innings. A reverse sweep against spin at the start of your innings is never the right situation.
It doesn’t matter how many assistant coaches are around you, you are playing for Australia. Of course playing at the highest level as a batsman has to weigh the risk against the reward. Indian pitches should be played straight against spin. The spinner should be hit straight and chased away. Both these principles should be adhered to. I hit every ball straight in the spin.
Australia should learn from India how to play on spin-friendly pitches. It is as if the Australian team did not see the Indian players batting. Indian players know the conditions very well and we see how they play. Why don’t Australian players take that as an example?
When Indian team players are playing well, why should we try different?. There was a situation where a score of 200 runs would win the Delhi Test match. We lost just one wicket for 60 runs. But we lost 9 wickets before adding 52 more runs.
Pat Cummins’ fielding tactics also raises various questions. I don’t know what happened. At one point Cummins had stopped 4 fielders near the boundary line. There were two and a half days left in the Test match. The Indian team had to be bowled out for less than 100 runs, otherwise there was a risk of defeat. It is irrelevant to face defeat in 20 overs or to lose the match in two days.
This is what Michael Clarke said.
