Before embarking on the India tour, Australian team had two quite fruitful outings in the subcontinental conditions, both in 2022. First up was a historic tour of Pakistan in March-April that saw them winning a three-match Test series 1-0.
And then in June, they drew a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka 1-1. The Australians must have taken a lot of confidence from their performances in the two countries and perhaps the experience of those tours could’ve come handy when faced with the challenge of facing India in India later on.
Also Read: Australia Trampled by Not the Demons in the Pitch, But by the Beasts Who Played on it – India
Ahead of the latest Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Pat Cummins-led side were being given a fare chance considering their red-hot form at home and the fact that India were a little vulnerable owing to injuries to few of their key players.
The world’s top-ranked side though were aware of the challenge that awaited them. A camp in Sydney where they batted on scuffed pitches followed by one in Bengaluru where the management even roped in an bowling duplicate of Ravichandran Ashwin.
Turns out, it was all in vain as Australia were blown away inside three days of the first Test in Nagpur as the duo of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shared 15 wickets between them to engineer a massive Indian victory.
Former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh credited Indian lower order batters for the way they dealt with the bowlers despite the pitch become increasingly challenging.
“The pitch was fresh, it looked like it was spinning a lot more. They got (Ravindra) Jadeja out early on. You have got to give credit to Axar Patel and Mohammad Shami, they batted really well. There was a dropped catch for Shami, which was costly. I think from my point of view, (Axar) Patel batted really well,” Waugh said on Star Sports.
Waugh thinks that Cummins should have bowled more and could’ve tried testing Indian batters with short deliveries quite often.
“I would have liked to see Pat Cummins bowl a bit more. I don’t think they bowled enough short stuff. When the tailenders start to form a partnership and look comfortable on the crease, I believe it’s worth to roll the dice a little bit,” Waugh said.
For the record, Cummins sent down 20.3 overs and picked 2/78. His fellow pacer Scott Boland bowled 17 wicketless overs while the offspin duo of Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy bowled a combined 96 overs between them.
“I know the surface is slow but never know what you can get out of it. I think Australia only bowled two or three short balls in the entire innings. I think they should have hit the pitch hard and see what happens. Maybe the Australians are guilty of not trying enough and waiting for something to happen, a mistake by the Indian batters maybe,” Waugh said.
The lead up to the series was dominated by talks of spin-friendly pitch. However, on the same track where Australia batters were found struggling as they made 177 in the first innings and 91 in the second, India scored 400.
The second Test starts from February 17 in Delhi.
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