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Australia punished for poor memory as Team India ambushed Cummins and Co in unforgettable performance in Perth – Firstpost

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Australia punished for poor memory as Team India ambushed Cummins and Co in unforgettable performance in Perth – Firstpost

On a hot Monday in Perth, the clock had just struck 3:47 pm local time when Harshit Rana struck the final shot with a ball worthy of the occasion. Operating from behind the stumps, the debutant paceman flicked the ball towards left-hander Alex Carey and then managed to lift it away from the Australian wicketkeeper.

Playing on the line of the ball, Carey was stunned when the ball flew past his outside edge and hit the stumps. The dismissal marked the end of one of Australia’s most disappointing home Tests, with Pat Cummins’ side suffering a crushing defeat with 295 runs to spare in the first of five Tests.

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Optus Stadium has become something of an Australian bastion since it debuted as a Test venue in December 2018. Admittedly, it has only hosted four previous Tests, but the home team won each one convincingly. That record, coupled with the perception that India are susceptible to pace and bounce, was one of the main reasons why this series started in the Western Australian capital. How ironic that on the Australian ground itself, it was India who did all the heavy lifting and led to a stunning turnaround in form and fortune.

Australia’s preparation for this game was praised, although their last Test was against New Zealand in Christchurch in early May. Meanwhile, the glut of white-ball cricket was interrupted by appearances for their state teams in the top-class domestic Sheffield Shield competition, in which every member of the 13-man squad, with the exception of Cummins, played at least one match.

Even though Marnus Labuschagne, the experienced No. 3, came into the series with just one score over 10 in his last eight Test innings, and even though Steve Smith, the former captain, had dropped back to No. 4 after failing to score in as the first player, Australia felt they had all the bases covered.

They felt that debuting Nathan McSweeney was the right choice as Usman Khawaja’s opening partner. They were convinced that Optus’ reputation and India’s perceived weakness to rebound would benefit them. They may have felt – but one cannot say this with any conviction – that they had the tools to at least negotiate, if not destroy, the genius of Jasprit Bumrah. How wrong they were on all counts.

This was not a typical Optus surface, primarily because rain in the days that marked the start of the five-match series prevented curator Isaac MacDonald from fully preparing the surface to his liking. The first day certainly had the pace, but as the match went on the lateral movement became less pronounced and the surface became slower.

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So in a way, India being bowled out for 150 at tea on the first day on Friday worked to their advantage because Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and opener Rana were able to use residual help before the track slowed down and let the Indian batters sleep. for a long run in the second innings, which lasted 134.3 overs.

Australia caught off guard in Perth

Australia admit, at least privately, that they were caught off guard by how quickly India adjusted to the conditions and were therefore able to outplay them on their own turf. Cummins and his colleagues had little success; The top order was demolished by Bumrah in both innings, their indecision and shaky footwork were just weaknesses that the magician wanted to exploit. He was relentless as a bowler but also exceptional as a leader and tactician, meaning he left his regular captain Rohit Sharma, who returned to the team, with a difficult task.

There is talk of cracks in the Australian team, a cold war between batters and bowlers, after Smith and Co. only made 104 in reply to India’s 150. At Monday’s press conference, Cummins dismissed that theory, but it is clear that Australia pushed on the back of his foot, if not rattled.

They have ten days to rediscover their mojo ahead of the pink ball test in Adelaide, and will likely begin preparations for that competition at least a day ahead of schedule, out of respect for where the series is currently at and how they were tamed The Indians, having come out of the series themselves, forgot at home against New Zealand.

Can Australians bounce back? Anyone who thinks otherwise has no connection with reality. Few sporting nations are prouder than the Australians and this is nothing less than a serious blow to their pride. In front of the largest crowd ever to play a Test at Optus, they were embarrassed and humiliated by the Indian line-up, which included five players playing their first Test in Australia.

Their batting looked ordinary, their famous and feared bowling line-up found itself bereft of imagination, creativity and ideas as India knocked them out of the competition in the second innings.

The logical conclusion must be that from now on the road for Australians leads only in one direction – up. It’s as much of a reality check as India’s capitulation to New Zealand earlier this month, and Australia will be plotting ways and means to reclaim its claim in a fortnight’s time in Adelaide.

Australia remain formidable team despite Perth Test loss

Despite their meek performance in Perth, Australia are still a formidable force and this defeat, humiliating as it was, should and will not define them. But they need the big guns within the team, especially Smith and Labuschagne, to lead the charge against Bumrah’s class currently operating at a stratospheric level.

Radical personnel changes are unlikely to occur, and there will be no knee-jerk reaction to a single, if not isolated, defeat. Australia will stick to the tried and tested method for now and continue to invest in opener McSweeney, who cannot become a worse batsman after two failures on debut.

They will be counting on Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon to continue to do the damage they have done consistently over the last decade. But now they will be even more aware of the possibility that India will not surrender resignedly. Australia should have known about this after the miracle in Brisbane three years earlier. In case they forgot, they got a rude awakening this week in Perth. Now they have to respond in kind.