What can Australia do to stem the rot in Asia?
Tl, Dr — Keep calm, stick with the players, a reset in mindset, get coaches to help with that.
Aus have been woeful in Asia — no other non-subcontinent side has been so consistently poor recently.
Take the recent records of SA, Eng, NZ.
SA won in Srl, drew in UAE; and defended courageously even in heavy defeats in India. They have an excellent record overall in India.
Eng drew in Srl, won in India, fought very well in UAE, almost winning a test and being very close in others.
NZ drew in UAE, drew in Srl, defended bravely in defeat in India.
Even the legendary team of 2000s did well in subcontinent. But that team was one of the best three across generations.
And mind you all these tours had come against sub-continent teams at their full strength, when their legends were playing.
So there is precedent by other teams. What differentiates the present Aussie team from the other three?
1. The pitches in respective countries don’t take the spin out of the game entirely. Apart from a couple of pitches in Aus, rest just don’t get better for spinners even on day 4, 5.
2. While batting, the other teams don’t play with hubris that is so typical of Aus. They respect the conditions, play with patience. Even to a degree by erring on the side on the caution.
It would be easy to say that this is how traditionally Aussies have won so many matches. But this approach has provided poor results in Ashes lately along with sub-continent. And the batsmanship across generations is not the same, we don’t have Gilchrist at 7, the proven performers top to bottom or the 4 equally potent bowlers, no matter the conditions — the methods of the yore need not work at present.
Remember how the same cricketers were tonking ball after ball of spinners in Australia? Quite simple — come down the track, loft the ball over the in-field — even if one is a mis-hit the bats are good enough, and all the commentators were like — Oh! This is brilliant batting, not allowing the spinners to settle. He is a good player of spin. Cue Khawaja, Burns.
The conditions in Aus are so lopsided against spin that never would a spinner run through a side. At best take wickets every 12 or so overs.
On pitches assisting the spinners, the Aus still employ the same method — here just to get singles with in-out fields. When they play back — the risks are presumed to be higher, so why not be aggressive and “unsettle” the bowlers. Going down the pitch and playing a shot does look good when it comes off but is not a positive expected value play in these conditions. Sooner or later the good spinner would do you in flight with loop and variations in speed.
Of course, Aussies know all this. It is bloody textbook. Here is what Lehmann said ahead of the series —
“We know that Sri Lanka will defend a lot once batters are in, so it’s going to take a lot longer to get your runs if that makes sense. We’ve spoken about the need to bat long periods of time is going to be key, which we’ve done pretty well to be fair over the last little while, but the challenge is to do it here.” Patience is the new buzz word everywhere in test cricket in this era of T20s.
Here is what Smith said after the 2nd test -
“A couple of the guys went over the top, showed a bit of courage, got the field back, sweep shots, reverse sweeps, it unsettles the bowler a little bit.”
He also judged 200 per innings to be par on this wicket and that 180 in the 4th innings was thus OK.
The two comments have a big disconnect.
Either — The batters don’t trust their defence to play with patience and wait for the bad balls. The way Eng, SA, NZ play.
Or the mindset of scoring freely like they do in Aus is so ingrained that it has taken hold of their mind. An idea is like a virus! Freaking Inception.
Srl are well cognizant of Australia’s lack of patience and the mentality to attack and hence they have also taken unwarranted risks to score below par scores the whole series.
The pitches are no vicious turners and with patience, application — runs like 400s per innings are to be had — others have done this consistently in the past, and that too against better bowling attacks. There is no mystery spin either — there is no Mendis, who accounted for India on the maiden tour.
When the match was all but lost in the chase of 4th innings — no one tried to change their approach to patiently tire the bowlers down and wait for mistakes. Runs were never going to be enough to win it. Remember how it seemed all too easy when O’keefe and Nevill were defending against spin in the 1st test. They played out 20 odd overs with only a couple of genuine scares.
But isn’t the objective of batting is to score runs — Of course and runs do come with time. Against scoreboard pressure, thinking you would hit off the bowlers of their lengths with attack is a not a potent technique against an international side, in its backyard.
There were still 2 and a half days left in the match. Instead, the batters took it as an excuse to be even more reckless. All they got were tens of runs at healthy strike rates, and not a single 50!
To succeed in conditions one is not accustomed to, you need skill and also the attitude to stonewall till one feels comfortable / change one’s methods — like ABD, Amla, Cook, Willamson, Bell.
An anecdote here — Bell ran down the wicket to a spinner in India, was beaten, yet carried on with the shot and was bowled in the first innings in India on 2013–14 tour. Eng lost the test big-time. The very next test he corrected the mistake, went on to score plenty of runs, and helped Eng win the series. He was ready to be patient, scoring well below strike rates he was accustomed to and was OK with runs that didn’t look pretty.
So what can this Aussie side do to stem the rot in Asia?
1. Smith has to understand that hitting the spinners off their lengths works in shorter formats and on true wickets. It is courageous only in the same vein as driving 100 miles per hour within a city. Mathews knows this, and he keeps his in-out fields — getting wickets, without conceding many runs. The risks are not just worth the reward. All one can hope for with present attitude is decent strike rate, pretty 30–40.
2. They should start looking at their process and not stats i.e., the runs scored. Yes, Warner has scored more than others, so has Marsh, Lyon has gotten most wickets behind Starc. But stats often hide more than they reveal. Warner took too many risks by premeditating balls. Marsh’s present technique of hard hands and premeditation is not expected to reap more than an occasional fifty. Lyon has to develop new skills to get wickets without getting them in a bargain for runs. He did own up to it and described his plans. A good sign for tour of India.
3. More application, ready to look ugly — Voges reverse sweeps are an anathema to good batsmanship — for a player who had an average rightly or wrongly near Brandman — his lack of application was just appalling.
4. Get Jaywardhane, Laxman for batters; and guys like Prasanna, Bedi, Saqlain to help the spinners. There are few months to go before the Ind tour. And if this is bad — it could be worse. Indians won’t be this reckless with their batting. The pitches would be actual dust bowls / would deteriorate big time.
5. Make room for complimentary ideas in the methods — yes, Aussies play with aggression, try to unsettle others, play to win first but there should be room for voices echoing alternatives. Say Gary Kirsten (not that is an option now)— who relies on process, grit, technical aspects would compliment the traditional play of Australia.
Is there a Silver lining?
Players like Voges, Burns, Khawaja have shown they have the temperament for test cricket, albeit in more friendly conditions. But even in friendly conditions, not many batters play long innings. These are clearly very good players of a very good side.
Assuming they won’t change their tactics on even friendlier track in Colombo, they will come back to Aus short on confidence with regards to spin. Then would score heavily at home. And go back to India with relatively the same team, only with mental scars?
CA has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more on pitches to resemble Asian conditions. But of course, you can not doctor good spin bowlers.
Hopefully, they would learn that suicidal intent to score runs with all the high risks shots is just dumb. Guys like Voges who bailed Aus out on debut in WI slow turner, Smith on previous India tour — have shown the application and patience before. Hopefully, they just need a reset.
Guys like Khawaja, Burns, Marsh have technical issues — premeditate the balls and shots; and play with hard hands. Plenty of time to work and correct them under able guidance.
The Indians were pretty accommodating on Aussies previous tour — providing pitches similar to those in Srl now. This time, the story could be different — Kohli likes to win at any cost, so rolled mud it could be!
On a secondary note, it is good to have more competitive test cricket. Be it Srilanka’s, WI’s home performance and Pakistan’s away. Test cricket is still lopsided towards the home team, but that has been the case for a long time now.
Images courtesy Espncricinfo.com.
