Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: 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. 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.
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.
