Australia imploded. That will be an understatement. What were they thinking? How did the team go into the ground on day 3 with a set plan without any backup? Things are bound to go wrong and where was plan B? The answer to all these are moot now but the way Australia imploded on that 3rd morning, it was disbelief written all over them. The Australian media have really gone into the heads of the Aussie cricketers and these cricketers are unable to shake off the negativity. That is pretty much clear. How else can one explain the shot that was played by someone of the calibre of Smith can be described? This is India vs Australia Delhi test review.
Let me start off with India
India won the test in 2.5 days and the scoresheet will say India 2 Australia 0. The Border Gavaskar Trophy retained in the space of 5 playing days. From the outside, it will seem that the Indians outplayed Australia in the manner of how Australia used to outplay England in the 1990s. However, the truth if far from that. India’s problems remain. It is not going away anytime soon. The sooner it is addressed, the better it will in the long run.
The form of Rahul at the top is consistently worrying. It looks like he has virtually become untouchable. In the sense that whatever he does or does not do, he is not going to be dropped. The rope that has been given to Rahul is mindboggling. Venkatesh Prasad, the former Indian bowler is quite furious at the continuous chances given to Rahul at the expense of Shubman Gill.
What more does he need to do to be dropped is not clear. What has Rohit and Rahul Dravid seen in him that the rest of the country is not able to? Why is he being treated with kid’s gloves? Prasad rightly said that Dhawan or Vijay wasn’t given this many chances to prove themselves. This despite the fact that Vijay has played some wonderful knocks outside Asia though his consistency left much to be desired. I will stop here because I have written enough about Rahul.
The middle order concern remains
The other issue is the form of middle order. Pujara and Kohli are increasingly becoming a liability. Kohli may or may not have been given out but he made only 44. After more than 3 years of relatively poor performance, that score just doesn’t cut it. His average is quickly falling down and at 35, he does not have that much cricket left in him. He will need a stellar year to bring that upto 50 again.
As for Pujara, though he played a good hand in the 2nd innings, the 1st innings wasn’t what was expected. He is another who has been given far too many chances for low returns. Better cricketers are waiting at the wings. If not for the poor standards of English County Championship Division 2, Pujara may not have come back into the team. I do not want to comment on Shreyas Iyer’s failure but he has done enough in his short career so far in Asia to be allowed the odd failure.
The impressive Axar batting
Axar was the difference between the teams. Not with the ball ofcourse but with the bat. He came in at a crucial time just like Nagpur and showed what he is capable of with the bat. India must have ended with 100 runs in arrears to Australia’s score but Axar took the score to within one run. Another 15 overs of Axar, perhaps, Australia would have endured a second successive innings defeat. The good thing about Axar’s innings was that he tried to score runs rather than stick onto the wicket. Rahul, Pujara and even Kohli will do well to learn from that. Ashwin gave him excellent company.
Now, onto Australia
Before the series began, Cummins said that,
“Everyone is different, so guys will be coming up with their own plans. Whether that’s the sweep and reverse sweep, or whatever it may be.”
Now it is clear that sweep is the only weapon that they have to counter spinners on challenging pitches. I for one will not go against sweep. I will not criticise the Australia for sweeping but they must have picked the balls to sweep. Take the case of Alex Carey. His wicket was quite comical. The played the reverse sweep to a ball that pitched outside the legstump. How they hell would have be able to control that shot? He missed and was bowled but even if he had managed to connect, it would have gone straight in the air for a dolly.
The most disappointing was Smith. Here is a great batsman, who seldom played the sweep in 2017 and scored tons of runs, is unsure of how to bat. You would expect Smith to display his own method to counter the threat. However, he chose to go alongwith the premeditated decision of sweeping everything under the sun. That was so unlike Smith. After the decent start, if only Smith had gone onto register a significant innings, the table would have been turned.
The wildest shot
As for Cummins, he had the whole drinks break to decide on his first shot. The swing of the very first ball was so mighty that if he had connected, the ball would have sailed and be deposited at his home in Australia.
The good thing for Australia was the bowling of Nathan Lyon. He once again showed why he is such a good bowler. The 3rd must highest wicket taker in Australia, he deserves much more respect than what he gets. However, what was the point of including a debutant in Kuhnemann? He is a bowler who has a poor first class record being thrust into the team rightaway. Boland with his stump-to-stump line could have been handy on that pitch. All of these shows muddled thinking on the part of the Australians.
Wrapping up India vs Australia Delhi Test review
Now that Australia cannot win the series, what can they do? They can try to win one game. As for India, they still have that prize of qualifying for the WTC finals where they will again, face Australia.