Australia: Doctored Pitches, Or Indoctrinated Minds?

Australians get beaten at their own game. One cannot help but question the wisdom at Cricket Australia because the team has just been handed a ghastly reminder of numbers they won’t be proud of looking back either.

It should not come as much shock that a visiting team, Australia, in this case, ending up losing the first Test to a spin friendly Indian team and pitch. But it was the manner of defeat and the matters that preceded it and in the course of the Test that have left a lot of food for thought.

That Australia might not be the once dominant team they were, despite the rankings that say otherwise, but that they still practise the art of mental disintegration as coined by the then captain, Steve Waugh was evident in full force at the first Border-Gavaskar Test in Nagpur.

Ahead of the first Test, Cricket Australia put out a social media post that reminded India of the one innings when they folded for just 36 runs on board on their last tour. That they did not see this boomeranging became apparent when they were promptly trolled with a fitting riposte of the score line of that series which went India’s way by a 2-1 margin with a great many heroics involved from unsuspecting members of the Indian team.

What seemed even more diabolical was that perhaps Australia had believed too much in the demons they themselves set out to create. Alarm was raised on the eve of the first Test of the manner of preparation of the pitch. Suddenly it was Australia who believed the pitch was unplayable even before a ball was bowled with some former Australian cricketers even asking for an International Cricket Council (ICC) intervention.

It is hard to tell how Cricket Australia could not have seen this backfiring. But it does explain why so much muddle and mess has trailed the operations at CA over the past three years or so, without even touching upon the selection blunders that have plagued the team for want of consistency, structure and security amongst players.

There is little doubt anywhere in the world that pitches are generally prepared with the utopian notion of neutrality but generally favouring the hosts, and playing to the team’s strengths. If the brown top had the Kangaroos hopping before the match itself, the visible and fairly healthy layering of green grass left on pitches on bouncy, seaming pitches of Australia and South Africa and in swinging conditions in England have rattled some of the best batsmen in the business from the Asian subcontinent.

To cry foul, and more importantly, to cry wolf, before the match seemed almost acceding to defeat in their minds even before taking to the field.

More ridiculous shenanigans when an Australian media outlet decided to take it upon themselves with Australia derailed at two wickets down next to nothing, that the technology (ball tracker in this case) might have broken down. Plausible, but unlikely that that was the cause for demise of Australia’s high hopes as stated by their skipper Pat Cummins before embarking on the tour.

Surely the captain’s robust assertions that this might be one of their best tours to beat India on their own turf could not have vapourised just the sight of brown, sun dried pitch top. No.1 ranked teams are made of sterner stuff, something that was pointed out by Ravi Shastri mockingly when he said “Australians don’t flinch” to Sanjay Bangar’s jibe (undoubtedly planted by the tete-a-tete played out as media warfare but running deeper) pointing to that post.

That was ahead of the start of play on day two, when Mark Waugh, the usually outspoken Australian cricketer turned commentator, was left on the backfoot, unable to defend a team that did not know defence from offence through the course of the Test that finished faster than expected as Australia turned on their tails, even with the likes of Steve Smith showing them how it is done when grinding matters down in a Test arena.

While there will be questions asked about the pitch in the context of why the match finished within three days, there are also counters to be made for the way India and Rohit Sharma batted on the same pitch to score his first century in over a year. He once again painstakingly explained how he had missed all but two Tests since taking over as captain.

The Indian tail wagged, although it would not entirely be fair to call an all rounder like Ravindra Jadeja making a comeback as part of the tail.

Even more importantly, questions need to be raised yet again in what has become a tiresome tirade, even Down Under, about the selection of the Australian team, how it is possible that yet again a team will undergo four or five changes which is a lot and does not show a lot of confidence in the playing 11. And also, of whether Australia had prepared mentally enough despite an early conditioning camp in India for the task ahead of them. This is criminal when one thinks of all of the technology at their disposal.

Axar Patel did not do a bad job and missed out becoming the fastest Indian bowler to 50 Test wickets by two. But if it was not required by the captain to do a bigger job in the second innings in particular, it has to be said that the Indian strategy to play three spinners could have been a psychological ploy, particularly since a section of the Australian cricket fraternity had already given their cards away instead of holding them close to their chest about their reservations about the pitch. It might have been better raised in the event that those fears were realised and that the pitch indeed held demons.

For India, it was a sense of unexpected jubilation not only for Patel but also, in the fact that Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja made a phenomenal return with both bat and ball after a long injury layoff that required substantial rehabilitation for his knee.

Ravichandran Ashwin knocked on history’s door with his 31st fifer. It is something the Chennai bowler would cherish, not only being an analytical fiend but also, as someone who has gone through the doubts and insecurities particularly when one is written off on overseas tours and whose time is being counted down.

Even more importantly, like fast bowlers hunting in pairs, India were reminded that the likes of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were on song against Australia. Jadeja and Ashwin in a pair seemed to almost have a terrorising effect on Australia, and when one considers that the Australians had already made their minds up about the pitch, it seemed the match and their fortunes were doomed to begin with.

It is obvious that there has been a leadership crisis in the Australian set up for sometime, whether in the board or in the dressing room. It is why niggling issues such as David Warner’s keep flaring up like an unhealed wound.

It would also explain why while Steve Smith is not the macho, rugged captain that Australia are accustomed to, there is a point or two he could lend in the dressing room as a batting mentor.

That Australia’s performance has been nervy also came across as Allan Border, the former Australian cricketer, was heard on air lambasting Smith for giving thumbs up to the bowler for a good ball while Australia were being skittled. He was heard saying, “Don’t go stupid… Australia play hard nosed cricket… We’re even giving someone thumbs up! Bloody hell.”

It came across rather evidently when he was pressed after the match by a battery of Indian commentators of why other Australian batsmen did not take the cue from him in terms of playing on the front foot and instead turned into a procession back to the pavilion while Smith kept plugging away at the crease.

While being respectful of each one’s game, something Smith pointed out repeatedly, he also seemed to echo that there were some things that could not be imparted without solicitation, which seems deterrent to a team that aspires to stay No.1.

It was also discernible that Mark Waugh, who was present in this group, was shifting in stance and while nodding subtly, was non committal, even looking away at times. It is a reflective sign that while trophies and rankings are present on the mantelpiece, they mask a deeper rot within the stable that robs it of stability.

While Pat Cummins suggested after the match that “not much is going to change to the next couple of games”, speculation speaks to the contrary as Australians are in two minds about whether Mitchell Starc will return from injury for the Delhi Test and whether they should take a wait and watch approach with Cameron Green.

Australia have reportedly called up another rookie in left arm spinner, Matthew Kuhnemann, after Todd Murphy who at 22 made his debut in the first Test, becoming the youngest bowler to take a seven wicket haul for the match on debut.

It is quite possible that Australia will have learnt from their haste and their nerves and present a more robust performance in the next match in India’s capital. But it also already evaporated the idea of their being invincible.

Furthermore, with the venue for the third Test at Dharamsala almost certainly now out of question about the quality of preparation of the pitch and the BCCI still assessing its readiness with the possibility of the match being shifted to a different location, the controversies that have received unprecedented coverage ahead of the first Test are likely to trail the series.

That India scored the psychological dent of having to bat only one innings and scoring 400 runs, while Australia flailed about to find their footing put Australia’s pitch contentions to rest, albeit temporarily.

Wasim Jaffer, former Indian opener, had a word of advice, “Never judge a pitch until both teams have batted on it. If both teams struggle, it’s the pitch. If just one team struggles, it’s the skills. Well played team India.”

Will this turn into a test of temperament on the field or a travesty of social media jousts with the DRS review decisions already being painted as having been unfair in Australia’s direction as part of post match early rumblings?

With India winning by an innings and 32 days in under three days with the skipper’s bat making an elusive century, Rohit Sharma might have saved himself for the time being. But team Australia is not out of the woods. Far from it.