AUS v IND 2018-19: Glenn McGrath believes India got fooled by the hype up of Perth pitch

McGrath said India should have played a specialist spinner in the game.

Virat Kohli | GETTY

There was a lot of hype over the new Perth stadium pitch matching the level of WACA deck. That made India play without a specialist spinner. The visitors went with four pacers in their bowling attack. Though they have a part-time spinner Hanuma Vihari too in their playing XI who bagged a couple of wickets on day 1.

Former Glenn McGrath and Allan Border suggested Indian team was tricked by the hype. Going without a specialist spinner in the second Test turned out to be a mistake for them, while Australia remained unchanged.

India went wicket-less in the first session of day 1. Talking about it, McGrath said, “They have got caught up in the hype and felt this pitch was going to do everything, bounce, pace, carry, seam."

Border said that having variety in the attack is always good and India look one-dimensional in this Test. “I do think it’s good to have that variety in attack, and the India pace bowling they were tremendous in Adelaide. They got through the heat and the conditions of all five days, they kept running in so I don’t think they need another one,” Border said. “A spinner would have been ideal later on in the game in particular. One of Australia’s weaknesses in the past few years has been left-arm spin.”

Earlier, former England captain Michael Vaughan had said that he would have played Ravindra Jadeja in the playing eleven. “Jadeja’s a wonderful cricketer as well. He’s someone that I’d want in the team. He bats well, he’s an incredible fielder, he will create something in the field and with his bowling, he’s just going to keep bowling,” Vaughan said. “You look at your three quicks and Ravi Jadeja, as a captain I look at it and you think you’ve got an end tied up against the left and right-hand, and if it does start to spin as it did in a Shield match a few weeks ago, he’ll come into his own.”

Still, India did well to come back in the game after a century stands for the first wicket between Aaron Finch and Marcus Harris. Finch, after a poor show in the first Test, scored a half-century and Harris added 75 runs after a couple of scores of 26 in his debut match.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah was spitting venom even though he picked up only one wicket. Ishant Sharma and Vihari managed two wickets. The newly included member in playing XI, Umesh Yadav bagged one wicket and Mohammad Shami went wicketless. 

(WITH INDIAN EXPRESS INPUT)

 
 

By Sihyeu Singh - 14 Dec, 2018

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