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Cricket great Mark Taylor has questioned how much Australia’s top order practised sweep shots prior to the India tour, admitting Steve Smith‘s use of the shot “shocked” him in the second Test.
Like many watching, Taylor was left scratching his head as Australia crumbled on day three in Delhi, with a number of batters dismissed while attempting ill-advised sweeps and reverse sweeps.
Taylor suggested the tourists’ manic sweeping was a sign they’d run out of ideas on how to score off India’s prolific spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
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“I have to question whether a lot of Australia’s top order have actually worked on the shot before they went over there, and I reckon the answer would be ‘no’,” he told 2GB’s Wide World of Sports Radio.
“I think what they’ve done is change their plan to play the sweep shots because they felt the old plan of playing straight hasn’t worked.
“It’s a shot you’ve got to practise and a shot you’ve got to be good at, and I’m not sure a lot of our guys are good at it.
“I think they’re playing it because they feel like they’ve got to play it. It’s the only way they feel they can score against Ashwin and Jadeja, and at the moment they’re losing the battle.”
The Delhi domination was the latest episode of Ashwin and Jadeja tormenting Australia, something that has become commonplace since they both entered the Indian side more than a decade ago.
Of Ashwin’s 463 Test wickets, 103 have come against Australia in just 20 games. Jadeja’s record against Australia is even more frightening, with the left-arm spinner picking up 80 wickets in just 14 Tests against the Aussies at an average of 17.23 over the last decade.
Even Australia’s trump card, Smith, was left without answers, and Taylor said he was worried by the vice-captain’s two innings which yielded a combined nine runs.
”The dismissal that shocked me the most was Steve Smith playing that sweep shot because it’s not a shot he plays often. That looked a shot of desperation to me,” he said.
“I would be saying to our batters, ‘Just get back to basics. Get back to a simple plan that you think is going to work when the ball starts to turn and see how that goes’.”
Despite the prospects of a drought-breaking series win being lost, Taylor sees plenty to gain for Australia in the final two Tests.
“There’s no doubt we’ve improved. I know that sounds a bit strange, but we were right in that Test match,” he said.
“At stumps on day two, we were leading that Test match, so we’re not that far away from winning in India. It is tough to win under those conditions on the pitches they are producing.
“All we’ve got to do is make sure we keep improving, keep getting better, and if we do, and try and avoid these disastrous sessions … you can win over there.
“We need to go into the next Test looking to improve on what we did in this Test match, and if we get a similar situation try and nail it down.”
Australia will face India in the third Test at Indore’s Holkar Cricket Stadium from 3pm on March 1.
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