India and Australia completed the 2nd leg of the 3 leg series with T20. India emerged victorious in the series with 2-1. This was not really a surprise because the Indians were involved in a 60 day IPL tournament and they were much more T20 fit than the Australians. The Indians were infact expected to win both the ODI series and the T20 series but they were able to win only one of them. As expected in T20 cricket, 2 of the 3 games were really high scoring games with scores of both the teams in excess of 175. The first game was much more sedate when compared to T20 standards with India winning with just 160 on the scoreboard.
Success of the series
There were some really good performances with a couple of great performances. There were a couple of belligerent fifties for Matthew Wade. He may have given one more opening option in the T20 format for Australia but age may work against him. Maxwell was at his best in one of the game. Zampa was tidy in the middle overs. As for India, Dhawan, Kohli & Rahul had one fifty each and Chahal bowled a match winning spell in the first T20.
However the biggest success was Ravindra Jadeja whose extraordinary 44 in the first T20 was the ultimate difference between a series won and series lost. Without his innings, India would have finished probably below 140 and Australia would have won easily. For Australia, Swepson was their biggest gain. He bowled tidily and pickup wickets in the middle overs which is very much required in the middle of the innings. Ofcourse, Pandya played a special innings. I will write about Pandya in a separate article.
Failure of the series
There were multiple failures during the series. Though Dhawan & Rahul have a fifty each, Rahul in particular really struggled to score. This is again because he was opening the innings. I have said this before and I will say this again. Rahul must never ever open the innings in any format. His position is in the middle order.
The biggest failure ofcourse was Steven Smith. The Test goliath is proving to be an amateur in the T20 format. He doesn’t seem to understand the shortest format. This is the difference between Kohli & Smith. Kohli has mastered all the formats whereas Smith struggles in T20. He is bound to struggle in next year’s T20 World Cup in India with the pitches being slow.
Inconsistent Indian team selection
The Indian team is the only team in the world that experiments right after the end of one world cup, throughout the time for the next world cup and during the next world cup. The management of Shastri, Kohli and the others seems never to make their mind up. Everyone remembers their quest to fill the number 4 slot in the ODI line-up for the 2019 World Cup. Just when Ambati Rayudu seemed to have filled that slot, the selectors dropped him and the team went into the 2019 World Cup with bits-and-pieces cricketers at the crucial number 4 slot. Pant, Karthik & Shankar all proved to be big failures at that slot.
Now, just a year to the 2021 T20 World Cup, it was Shreyas Iyer in the ODIs at number 4 and now Sanju Samson at that position in T20 with Iyer at 5. Manish Pandey is never thought by the management as someone who can by the solution at the crucial number 4 slot in both T20 and ODI. Why is he not given consistent chances is beyond me.
Struggle against spin in the middle overs
It is a growing worry that Indians, who are renowned players of spin is actually struggling to play spin over the last several years. In the recent T20 and ODI series, Adam Zampa and Mitchell Swepson were able to keep the batsmen quiet throughout the middle overs. A couple of years ago, Lyon took a lot of wickets both in India and Australia. Little known Steve O Keefe won one test in Pune. The Indian batsmen struggle against Swann & Panesar led to the loss of a test series against England a few years ago.
The reason for this is because the Indians, as soon as they start to play for India, they completely forget first class cricket and are not involved in any Ranji game. Ranji will certainly help them play spin well. The board must make it mandatory for every Indian player to play atleast 3-4 Ranji games every year so that the skill to play spin bowling will not be lost and the Indian batsmen will not struggle against that type of spin.
In praise of Natarajan
Natarajan has certainly impressed everyone on his international debut. He bowled brilliantly in all the games. It was impossible to imagine India winning an international limited over series without Bumrah but Natarajan made it possible.
In Kohli’s and Pandya’s words
“Natarajan – special mention to him because in the absence of [Mohammed] Shami and Bumrah, he’s been the guy who has stood up and really delivered under pressure which is outstanding for the fact that he’s playing his first few games at the international level.”
Pandya was even more magnanimous in his praise of Natarajan. He even handed over the player of the series award to Natarajan because he felt Natty deserves it more than Pandya himself.
“Natarajan, you were outstanding this series. To perform brilliantly in difficult conditions on your India debut speaks volumes of your talent and hardwork
You deserve Man of the Series from my side bhai!”
This is indeed high praise. Hopefully, Natarajan will be able to maintain his form and be part of the T20 World Cup squad. I know he is close to 30 but if he could somehow add a few more KMS, he can even be part of the test squad. A left arm fast bowler bowling at 142 – 144, and with the skills that Nataraj has will be an excellent asset to the Indian bowling.
Other articles related to the Australian tour can be read here, here, here, here & here.
