2020-21 THIRD TEST PREVIEW – AUSTRALIA V INDIA

3 minute read

Upsets in sport are common enough. But there are upsets and then there are upsets.

It doesn't happen all too much in cricket being a team game full of individual performances and yet India rallied around each other when they most needed to and credit where credit is undoubtedly due.

AUSTRALIA V INDIA

Third Test

7 - 11 January 2021 @ SCG

Who saw that coming? It wasn't that India are a bad team or don't have elite individuals.

It's just that they made 36 last time. 36 … Garry Sobers made that in one over.

Perhaps that was the issue in a nutshell. If the tourists could bandy together and regroup, they had their chances in Adelaide but failed to take them.

Led on first innings, dropped catches, let Australia off the hook, didn't play the patient game – all those facts contributed to a most remarkable result.

And yet did it wallpaper over some local cracks? There could well be a degree of fact in that. It was just how could they bounce back mentally?

Ajinkya Rahane deserves a great deal of that credit. And not just for making a stern, confident and combative hundred. He set attacking and funky fields, he changed them up against different batsman with differing flaws.

His bowling moves were concise and thoughtful. And importantly he didn't captain with an albatross around his neck – that of Kohli's standing and forthrightness. He was his own man.

In Bumrah and Ashwin he had two elite and experienced cricketers that he knew he could rely on. But there were able support castings from Jadeja and Siraj, who impressed on debut.

Then factor in that as Pujara walked off they were 3-64 and another quick intervention meant the bowlers were up soon. Vihari, Pant and Jadeja all added 50+ with the skipper thereafter. The game had turned.

Part of that was because of a simple but notable point we raised pre Melbourne. More (any in fact) lefthanders just adds a differing question to the bowler. Where to land, use of the crease, around or over, lbws tougher, more leaving etc etc.

Pant and Jadeja alone asked the bowlers to think. It's not that they didn't or couldn't but it's not as easy as just plonking yourself on off-peg for the righthanders and let the pitch do the talking.

The visceral nature of batting is to want to feel bat on ball. That is not always best in a test match. India left much better here too. When they didn't they were caught at the wicket.

Speaking of techniques there are some Australians that were glad to see 36 occur because in two tests now their traditional imperfections were exposed again.

Australia, through its cricketing history, are great 'bosses' of the game. They are the best leaders from the front and rarely get rundown. Score 300+ and then dominate with scoreboard pressure.

But when the reverse happens as was last Test scoring 195, they have to recalibrate. Remember Edgbaston when they were 8 for 122, SPD Smith did get them to 284 with a help from his friends.

So this team needed change. Burns just isn't in form and makes way now. Wade can look flashy but isn't a long term opener – better suited to the middle order when the ball won't move as much however he plays a few rash shots.

Head invariably gets a start but falters thereafter. That can be as criminal in cricket as a duck. The moving ball sees his lack of footwork bared for all. Green needs time so he must be firstly supported by selection and given a benefit of any doubt. There is talent in those 'green shoots'.

Probably also Mitchell Starc is on a last warning that selection is not assured. It wasn't in the last Ashes Series when the first test attack was Cummins, Siddle and Pattinson. A fast bowling change was possible under normal circumstances.

Another issue which has traditionally been such a cornerstone of Australian cricket is fielding. This is one of the weaker all around line ups. The cordon is all askew (sans Warner who would probably be first slip as he was in England) and there is not that strong a group of arms bar the quickies.

That old adage of catches win matches was completely the obverse of Adelaide. India dropped a bag of them there and was beaten by 8 wickets only setting a score under three figures after a shocking third innings of the match.

At the MCG Australia was equally as poor and it was the same result in the other direction. Some of them were dollies. Good teams could and should be better. This is not a great home team in toto.

In the same way their bowling arsenal was lauded for the 36, India's should be for what happened in Victoria. Jasprit Bumrah is a brilliant quickie. Such a weird and wonderful stat is that he's played 16 tests at a bowling average around 20 and yet is to enjoy a home crowd cheer as he runs in to bowl.

Back injuries at bad times and then of course the small matter of Covid has meant the man from Ahmedabad has taken his tour de force via Cape Town to Christchurch, Nottingham to North Sound and parts in between. But nothing at home.

Of greatest acknowledgment is that he has more weapons than many Indian pace bowlers from the past. He's not just an outswing bowler or needing reverse. There is intimidation, swing, cut, and most importantly – thought.

He certainly did for Steve Smith when he clipped his leg pole. It is kind of surprising that hasn't happened more often to the former Skipper given his penchant for walking across and flicking off his pads.

And while it did bring his demise, it has suckered in so many speedsters over the last five years as they think it can hit some pads and get the umpire's decision. Meanwhile as they look up the ball is crashing into the mid-wicket boundary rope.

However right now that co-ordination for Smith isn't in sync. He's finding strange ways to get out. He was nurdled off to end the last Ashes Series at leg gully, against NZ as well and then twice in Melbourne – to spin and pace – he was out there too.

Those sort of dismissals would rile him as they were as much him not on top of his game than the bowler. He'd probably prefer a hooping outswinger clip the edge or a tailing Yorker do him in.

And so we go to the SCG – which wasn't always going to be the case. The coronavirus outbreak in the lead up to Christmas and beyond certainly had impacts on many areas of life.

While sport is hardly the most important it was one of the avenues which had to be addressed. The MCG was talked of as a double-upper much as Old Trafford did during the English Summer when Manchester had three in four weeks as the players stayed in the quarantined area.

After it took India's psychological best to bounce back last week, now Justin Langer will need something near his efforts of Leeds in 2019 to recover. They have had time but only just when you don't hold the trophy.

Watch for Australia's scoring rate to be much more positive from now on. They have knicked and nudged below 3RPO for much of the series. Not suggesting we'll see Warner attempt the hundred before lunch as he did against Pakistan but there will be a puncher's mentality here.

Suspect if we see a batting order of Warner, Pucovski, Labuschagne, Smith, Wade, Green that more shots will be played and greater intent in the running between wickets, turning over the strike regularly. Assuming it happens it will be great to see Pucovski debut. You can only wish for the best for him. Play your natural game young man.

India will be buoyed and so hard to beat on this sort of pitch. Who knows it might be the first of back to back clashes.

They have to make changes too with Umesh Yadav injured and Rohit Sharma back as VC. This game should see even more turn. That spells danger to Australia unless somehow Marnus tweaks as well as Lyon does.

Ashwin, and if Kuldeep Yadav plays, could spin and win. The latter took five wickets two years ago in this very game in what was his last test. Australia could just try and sit on Ashwin so Kuldeep could be a big beneficiary.

Off his confident and technically competent innings in Melbourne, suggesting Cameron Green can go on with it in Sydney. The top order have struggled so he'll have plenty of time you'd expect to build an innings as the tail do hang around.

Unless the weather plays its role, we could see another fast game. And while the old saying is 'a fast game is a good game', let's leave that to the T20 bashing and crashing.