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March 5, 2013
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News : Clarke to move up the order
Report : India go 2-0 up after Australia capitulate Features : Where to from here for Australia? Players/Officials:
Michael Clarke
Series/Tournaments:
Australia tour of India
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Michael Clarke has suggested that there could be changes to Australia's line-up for the third Test in Mohali after what he called "unacceptable" performances from both the batsmen and bowlers in the first two matches. Clarke also conceded that the shot selection of the batsmen had been "horrible" so far on the tour and called on them to show more patience in the middle, as their Indian counterparts had done.
Speaking straight after the defeat by an innings and 135 runs in Hyderabad, Clarke did not foreshadow what team alterations could occur, other than to confirm that he would move up the order from his No.5 position. None of the top four batsmen have averaged more than 30 during the first two Tests, while James Pattinson is the only bowler averaging under 30.
The squad includes three men who are yet to play a Test on this trip - Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith - and the other two players left out of Hyderabad after the Chennai loss, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, will also be in consideration. The team has eight days to regroup ahead of the third Test and Clarke said the batting and bowling departments would both be under the microscope.
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"We have to look at both areas that's for sure," Clarke said. "Both have been unacceptable, both aren't good enough. We have to try and find ways to improve and if that means making changes that's what we have to do. We made a couple of changes for this Test match. I want to pay credit to India, the way [Cheteshwar] Pujara and Vijay played. Our bowlers in patches bowled really well but they were able to stay together and not lose their wicket and bat patiently."
While the bowlers only claimed one victim on the second day of the Test as Pujara and M Vijay put on 370 for the second wicket, it was the team's first-day batting that really started the rot. After Clarke won the toss and chose to bat Australia struggled to 237, a paltry effort compared to the 503 compiled by India.
The accurate seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar accounted for three of the top four batsmen in the first innings and spin then troubled the rest. Clarke and Matthew Wade looked comfortable during their 145-run partnership but only three other stands reached double figures. That was followed by a second innings collapse on the fourth morning and the entire innings lasted less than two sessions. But the most damning statistic was that Australia made less in the whole match than Pujara and Vijay did in one partnership.
"I think they scored 50 runs in the [first] session, but they had the discipline and the patience to bat long periods of time because they knew as the game went on, second session, third session, they would catch up," Clarke said. "It gets easier. It does. That's the fun part about batting. You do the work at the start of your innings, you get the reward at the end of your innings. At the moment our shot selection has been horrible.
"We need to be smarter with our shot selection, that's for sure. You have seen in the first few Tests too many guys getting out playing across the line of the ball and against the spin especially early in our innings. So I think we have to be more disciplined with our shot selection. But I don't want guys to curb their natural instinct, I don't want guys to try and play a way they aren't comfortable doing.
"We've had the best of conditions, won the toss and batted on both wickets. We knew before coming to India how important the first innings was going to be. There is more variable bounce, more spin, it is harder to bat in the second innings. That doesn't excuse today, that's for sure. We still should be doing than we did today and yesterday but our first innings has really let us down as a batting unit."
The result was Australia's first innings defeat since the Sydney Ashes Test in 2010-11, when Clarke found himself in charge of the Test side for the first time as the stand-in captain when Ricky Ponting was injured. When asked to offer his overall thoughts following the second-innings collapse for 131, Clarke was blunt in his assessment.
"It's probably more polite of me by not putting it into words," Clarke said. "It's obviously unacceptable. Very disappointing. I certainly don't want to take any credit away from India, I thought they played very well yesterday, they showed us once again how to bat in these conditions, they showed us once you get in how to go on and cash in and make a big score.
"Our performances in these two Test matches have been unacceptable, certainly nowhere near the standard we are trying to set as an Australian cricket team. There's plenty of people that not only watch us on TV but fly around the world to support us and watch us and we know we've let them down."
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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Assistant Editor Possibly the only person to win a headline-writing award for a title with the word "heifers" in it, Brydon decided agricultural journalism wasn't for him when he took up his position with ESPNcricinfo in Melbourne. His cricketing career peaked with an unbeaten 85 in the seconds for a small team in rural Victoria on a day when they could not scrounge up 11 players and Brydon, tragically, ran out of partners to help him reach his century. He is also a compulsive TV game-show contestant and has appeared on half a dozen shows in Australia.
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When England were drubbed by Pakistan in UAE, it was considered by many that the selectors had made a mistake to stick with under-performing batsman through the entire series. Will Australia make the same mistake here? I can see the logic of giving batsmen a bit more leeway than bowlers because it only takes one ball to get a batsman out while a bowler who's had a bad game has generally bowled a reasonable number of poor overs. That said, Phil Hughes is an example right now of someone who just doesn't look like he has it in him to make a significant contribution. He seems to have no plan against spin and looks to be just hoping not to get out, which is exactly how some England batsmen looked in UAE. Clarke moving up the order is all well and good but the middle order is still going to be facing plenty of spin. The selectors may be worried about denting his confidence yet again but I feel like Hughes at least should be replaced, if only for this series.
Australia have two options that may improve things - bring in Khawaja for any batman other than Clarke, and Johnson for any bowler other than Pattinson. Johnson's often a big liability, but he's always been capable of the odd magic spell that could turn a game. It's a gamble Aus surely have to take. Khawaja obviously has to play - probably for Hughes. Steve Smith is a bits and pieces player who doesn't warrant a Test place on either batting or bowling - like Glenn Maxwell. The Aussie selectors have made plenty of cock-ups in recent times; getting rid of Haddin was one of them. Wade's done well with the bat, but no better than Haddin - and Wade's keeping is average. Haddin's experience in a team of unproven young players would be handy too.
Acknowledging the problem is the first step in solving it. In that regard, I give credit to Clarke for immediately acknowledging the problems and being honest about it, unlike the Indian team that paraded excuse after excuse for their debacle in England and Australia. If we know anything about the Assuie cricket team, we know they will bounce back. They have pride, and when you have that, it hurts. For the sake of a better series and a reality check for Indians, I hope the Aussies bounce back hard. I want India to fight harder for their victories in the next two games
If you remove 370 from India's total, it leaves only 133. But, then you can also remove 145 from Australia's total leaving them with 92 in the first innings. The two teams are nearly the same if you remove Pujara, Vijay, Clark & Wade from the first innings equation.
Posted by mcwc on (March 6, 2013, 23:32 GMT)The senior Test players are earning $500k-$1m each per year and this does not include the IPL takings if they participate or any other T20i tournament. Even if they lose the test series 4-0, they still get paid handsomely from CA and their sponsors.
So why should they care apart from turning up.
Performance pay is the way to go and not just paying them a secure salary.
Posted byUnbelievable. Why can't pup accept that Indians are Champions. Its okay to lose to a champion side.
Posted by Greatest_Game on (March 6, 2013, 19:55 GMT)It is not the shot selection that was terrible, it was the player selection, the team selection, that was horrible. It would be harder to select a worse shot than selecting Hughes against spin! What other result than horrible shot selection can be expected when selecting horrible players!
Posted by Chris_P on (March 6, 2013, 19:36 GMT)@Beertjie. Correction accepted. I was thinking of the following drawn series but got the year mixed up, the point is still relevent, though, the past 12 seasons, India has been untouchable at the back end of the season. A good record indeed.
Posted byit just so happens as australia are so totally lost against spin, ashwin and jadeja have found excellent form and rhythm. jadeja is the star , he has been really aggressive. b kumar is a revelation also with the ball
R Ashwin (India) 2 4 117.0 36 302 18 7/103 12/198 16.77 2.58 39.0 3 1 RA Jadeja (India) 2 4 101.0 30 209 11 3/33 6/66 19.00 2.06 55.0 0
both ashwin and jadeja are wiping the floor with them. for a spinner averages under 20 are not common.
looking at pattinson, its obvious where australia's strengths lie - pace bowling. We should have 2-3 additional pace bowlers of pattos quality(there are a few at home like jackson bird, johnson could be given a go, as well as ben cutting)
and also our batsman- all are woeful.
first of all VC watson, shouldn't be near a test squad, he's not test standard and clueless against spin
hughes, his technique has been red flagged enough
for batting- wheres rogers? doolan? haddin?
Posted by Beertjie on (March 6, 2013, 9:57 GMT)One correction @Chris_P on (March 6, 2013, 6:08 GMT) It is not true that "the only 3 series losses India have had in the past 13 years at home have all come at the front of their season where the pitches behaves a little better." In 2000 South Africa defeated India at the back end of the season.