New Delhi: Not every batter is comfortable playing a high-percentage risk shot like sweep and reverse sweep and that’s where some of his teammates perhaps “went out of their methods”, was skipper Pat Cummins’ observation after Australia’s demoralising six-wicket defeat against India in the second Test.
As many as five Australian batters, including vice-captain Steve Smith, were guilty of playing across the line to deliveries that were consistently keeping low.
“I thought they (India) bowled really well. It’s not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods,” Cummins said after the match.
Cummins feels that the “one size fits all” approach isn’t the right way to go about as far as batting on these tracks are concerned.
“Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don’t think there’s any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross batted shots which might not be our preferred method,” Cummins further explained.
There are two things about batting – tempo and method. For Cummins, the high tempo needs to be balanced by the correct method.
“Two big things we talk about is the tempo of the game and the method. Maybe at times, we were a little bit too high on tempo,” said Cummins, who does not mind that approach.
“I would rather be high tempo than low tempo though. To be honest, those wickets were being difficult but maybe the method went a little bit away from what we planned to do at times.”
Cummins had to admit that batting first was a good opportunity to score 300 plus which they “potentially” missed.
“Looking back on it, 300 would have been fantastic. 260 was ‘ok’ but if we really want to drive home the advantage we were a few short.”
The Delhi game invoked similar feelings like Nagpur Test where Australia lost all 10 wickets in a session. Sunday, they lost nine in just about 90 odd minutes in the morning.
“It’s disappointing, this game was a similar story to Nagpur second innings. Felt like we were in a really good position for most of it, probably a few runs short in the end.
“In Nagpur maybe we underplayed. We probably overplayed it here at times in the second innings. You have got to find a way to try and put pressure back on the bowlers.
“They are really, really good bowlers, especially in these conditions.”
India’s lower-order did make difference
Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel in both games made the difference with their willows. Jadeja scored 70 in first game while Axar hit back-to-back half tons under pressure. Ashwin has been gutsy in both innings that he played.
Cummins acknowledged the effort of the Indian lower order. Two back-to-back hundred plus partnerships for the eighth wicket (Axar-Jadeja in Nagpur, Axar-Ashwin in Delhi) actually became a decisive factor.
“Again they batted very well. They are guys who have scored Test hundreds and batted really well. I thought our plans were pretty sound most of the time but unfortunately, they built partnerships.
“A couple of those times the first two days, it felt like if you got yourself in (set), it was going to get a little easier The ball was getting softer and older as well. It’s something we will look at. It’s disappointing. Those small margins both games end up making a pretty big difference.”
PTI