The Border-Gavaskar Trophy did not start on the right note for Australia. In fact, it was as far off as possible. India mauled them by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test in Nagpur. Despite Australia's special practice sessions on scuffed-up pitches in Alur, Bengaluru and before that in Sydney, both their batters and spinners appeared pale compared to their Indian counterparts. The worst bit? They lost the mental battle too. There was far too much noise about external factors like pitches, and ground conditions than plain cricket. The fact that they got someone who has just modelled his action on Ashwin and has played only four first-class matches, to tackle one of the greatest spinners in the modern era, was not a great advert.
Former Australia fast bowler Stuart Clark said the Pat Cummins-led side's preparation was not up to the mark as they decided against playing practice matches.
“I think the bit that gets me about it all is - and we talked about it before the series started - were they as well prepared as they could be? And the general consensus, if you talk to anyone on the street, is ‘no, they weren’t,” Stuart Clark said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.
“No practice game, no tour match, turn up ... and got dusted in a manner people are pretty disappointed about. Say what you want, they got smoked. India are a pretty good team in their country, but I just don’t think they were prepared well enough," he said.
Australia's selection was also not up to the mark. The decision to drop in-form Travis Head, who could have been handy with his off-spin, was a baffling one. They had a left-arm spinner in Ashton Agar and a leggie in Mitchell Swepson in the squad but they handed the debut to Todd Murphy, who in all fairness, did a fantastic job with the ball, picking up 7 wickets on debut. But there isn't much difference between him and Nathan Lyon - they are both off-spinners with largely similar attributes. Unless they decide to play three spinners, it looks unlikely they will be able to make any changes to their spin department despite drafting in left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann to the squad before the second Test in New Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}Australia's selection was also not up to the mark. The decision to drop in-form Travis Head, who could have been handy with his off-spin, was a baffling one. They had a left-arm spinner in Ashton Agar and a leggie in Mitchell Swepson in the squad but they handed the debut to Todd Murphy, who in all fairness, did a fantastic job with the ball, picking up 7 wickets on debut. But there isn't much difference between him and Nathan Lyon - they are both off-spinners with largely similar attributes. Unless they decide to play three spinners, it looks unlikely they will be able to make any changes to their spin department despite drafting in left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann to the squad before the second Test in New Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}“I’ve watched a little bit of him (Kuhnemann) bowl in domestic cricket. He’s a pretty good bowler, and he would be hard work and he offers a bit of variety. But that means you’ve got to either play three spinners — I’m not sure they’re going to do that — or you’ve got to leave out Nathan Lyon. I’m pretty sure they’re not going to do that.
“Todd Murphy obviously did really well, so you can’t leave him out. I think they’ve painted themselves into a corner where it’s very difficult to change the team,” he said. It’s such a corner that they’re almost stuck and unless they get some injury relief — ie. Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green come back — I don’t see how they can make any changes without looking like, A; there’s a massive over-reaction to what happened in the first game, or two; accepting they got it wrong, and I don’t think they want to do either of those," Clark added.