Former Australia keeper Ian Healy has said that the Pat Cummins-led side erred by not playing any tour match ahead of the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 in India as the visitors trail 2-0 after losing both the first two Tests within three days in Nagpur and Delhi respectively.
The Australian team was blown away by an innings and 132 runs in Nagpur as they were bowled out for 177 and 91 in reply to India’s 400. And then in Delhi, though they managed to put on 263 runs in the first innings, India managed to trim the lead to just 1 run.
And then, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin routed them in the second innings for just 113 runs and Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara ensured India won the match by six wickets to go 2-0 up and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as well.
Ian Healy, who had advocated against Australia’s decision to not play tour games in India, has slammed this decision in the aftermath of the results of the first two Tests.
“Never again tell me we’re not playing a tour match to begin, at least two, there’s no shortcuts to Test match success. The selectors would have known what to do, rather than go with a pre-determined plan,” he said on SENQ Breakfast.
Healy suggested Pat Cummins could’ve understood the Indian conditions better had there been a couple of tour games, opener David Warner would’ve gotten time to adjust to Indian pitches and help him get out of the T20 mode after playing in BBL before flying to India.
“The captain won’t succumb to Indian chaos and be much more in command. He starts to learn about the pressures and how this opposition gangs up on you. David Warner will have time to get his footwork going in one or two preparation matches.
There are players that played T20 or didn’t play for a month – Cummins was one of those, Nathan Lyon was one of those and he shook it off this match, he wasn’t ready in the first Test,” he added.
On the bowlers, Healy said the tour games would have enhanced their knowledge about how to ball with an SG ball.
“Get a feel for the new ball. They use a different ball over there, it’s an SG ball, it can be slippier or grippier. Get a feel for all of that, how it reacts, what speed to bowl it at for these slow wickets,” he said.
Healy also said that the Australian team are not used to playing three spinners and during those tour games, where the visiting teams decide how to use them.
“Playing with three spinners, we’ve got to get used to that. Playing with three spinners and minimal quicks, we’ve got to get used to that,” he added.
The third Test will begin in Indore on March 1 and the final Test will be played in Ahmedabad from March 9.
(Indian Express inputs)
