Former Australia skipper Greg Chappell has slammed the team for their performance in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy against India, saying that the team ‘needed to play to their strength.’ Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Aussie great also termed dropping pacer Scott Boland from the second Test in Delhi as a mistake.
“Australia needed to play to their strengths to have a chance of winning this series. Spin bowling is not our strength. Picking spinners for the sake of it is not the way to success in India. We had to pick our best bowlers and trust them to do the job and back that with sensible batting, based on sound principles,” Chappell wrote.
The former India coach compared Australian team’s performance after the first two Tests as punching themselves in the mouth.
“It was Mike Tyson who said in the lead-up to a fight with Evander Holyfield: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. My concern after watching the first two Tests is that the Australian team punched themselves in the mouth long before the first ball was even bowled,” Chappell wrote.
Australia lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs, while got beaten by six wickets in the Delhi Test, both inside three days. In the second Test though, Australia gave themselves a fighting chance as it become a one-inning shootout after India conceded one-run lead in the first innings.
The visitors, however, collapsed dramatically as they lost eight wickets for a meagre 28 runs in the second innings and went from 85/2 to 113/10. There has been an inquest in the manner Australia folded out in the second innings in Delhi as most of the batters were out playing the sweep shot to Indian spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin.
The next Test of the series will be played from March 1 in Indore with the fourth and final Test scheduled to be played from March 9 in Ahmedabad.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
