New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) Australia reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Sydney after ten years meant India couldn’t achieve its ambition of making a three-peat of Test series wins on Australian soil. It was a tour where India’s batting didn’t click in unison, as seen from them being unable to go past the 200-run mark six out of nine times.
Barring a few bright sparks from the willows of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Kumar Reddy and KL Rahul to some extent, India’s batting lacked the consistency, big scores and partnerships. Captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (barring the hundred in Perth), and Shubman Gill had a tough time, while Rishabh Pant also struggled during the tour.
The poor batting performance in Australia was a continuation of the doubts over India’s batting department coming good in tough conditions, especially after they lost 3-0 to New Zealand at home.
Former India spinner Sunil Joshi, who was the chief selector during the side’s 2-1 series triumph in the 2020/21 tour, lamented the side’s failures with the bat in their 3-1 defeat to Australia.
“It’s pretty hard to take it, but the batters need to take responsibilities. Of course, the coaching staff also needs to be aware that how they can communicate with the players – be it the hard way or the subtle way. It’s a bitter pill and we have to accept it. Every player on that tour understands what is the importance of playing for India.
“They would always like to give their best, but at times it may not happen. So the players need to be told what they need to add or adapt in terms of patience and a little bit of adjustment in their skill levels and techniques. For me, if you look at the dismissals of our top six batters in all five Test matches, I don’t see any change in that.
“It looked similar dismissals, and I’m not saying that even the Australians also got out the same way. But the difference between us and the Australians was clearly shown by the partnerships they built upon and the top order taking responsibility time and again. Also, we need to look at our fielding, as that was an area of concern,” said Joshi in an exclusive conversation with IANS.
Another aspect that stood as a sore sticking point was all-rounders being picked more for their batting abilities as compared to their bowling prowess. Joshi felt India should have opted to play five proper bowling options in Australia and again pointed out how batting not coming good in Australia put more pressure on bowlers.
“If you want to win overseas or even in India, if you want to win a Ranji Trophy, you need five bowlers. You cannot go with four bowlers, and for me, if your six batters and seventh or eighth batters are not going to score runs, you then need five proper bowlers who can win Test matches for you by picking 20 wickets.
“If you look at the amount of load Bumrah had in the five Test matches, he bowled above 150 overs. In case you’d have reduced his load to somewhere around 60 or 65 overs, his effectiveness could have been much more. In this series, every time it was Bumrah – even in the last Test match, Bumrah went out (due to back spasms) and we looked very ordinary.
“Playing in Australia is hard; it’s the hardest of all away tours and you need to be really, really on top of your A game. In one of the previous Test matches, Bumrah went out for a brief period and if I’m not wrong, he came back luckily. Everyone was concerned about his niggles and it’s bound to happen because he’s stretching. He’s also a human being and he is giving every effort to every ball he bowls because it’s effective.
“I am not saying that it’s on batters or bowlers; it’s the responsibility of the complete team. As a team, they have not done well as a team and lost the series, so accept it. There’s no point in pinpointing anyone. The top six batters needed to score and put up runs on the board. Then only you are allowing your bowlers to take 20 wickets. If you’re not scoring runs in the top up front, it’s tough for the bowlers also,” he said.
Joshi also noted that the Indian bowlers’ recovery on tour in Australia was also influenced by the batters not batting long enough. “You look at how many times the bowlers and bowling unit spent time on the ground in the series. Did they get a proper two days of rest? No. They were almost bowling on the ground every day or for one and a half days. If you’re bowling 15, 17, 18 or 20 overs, you can’t have that intensity to bowl every one and a half days, because the body will not recover on the field.
“That’s because you’re going to field for 90 overs as well and that’s a lot of toil on their bodies too. If you want to keep them fresh, then our batters needed to put up runs on the board and bat for 90, 120 or 140 overs. If that happened, they would have scored 400-plus runs, and that was missing,” he concluded.
–IANS
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