‘Can’t sweep every ball here … You can’t decide yesterday …’: Karthik and Hayden slam Australia’s collapse

IND vs AUS: Even as several Australia batsmen fell, trying for the big shots, Dinesh Karthik and Matthew Hayden questioned their mindset. In particular, their sweep shots on such a low surface.
“It’s a good option here but you need to know how. Can’t get too far beside the line. Need to come along the line of the ball,” Matthew Hayden started it off on Australia’s sweep shot tactic.
Then Dinesh Karthik said, “If Australia had a blueprint, then it should have been NOT to play a sweep shot too much here on this surface where the ball has kept low.”
Hayden added, “Definitely not every ball. It’s part of your arsenal but it also needs to be backed up smarts. What we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia. They’ve gone way over the edge in terms of their aggressive play.”
Karthik then questioned the plan itself.
India’s wicketkeeper Srikar Bharat, left, successfully appeals for LBW against Australia’s Steve Smith. (AP Photo)
“Couple of others didn’t trust their defense. They came out swinging and swinging hard. When you try to do that – when you have already planned in the dressing room, this is how I am going to bat, that can get you in trouble. You come in, you assess the conditions as you deem fit on that day, you have a batting plan and then you adjust according to what’s been presented to you. If you have decided it yesterday, that’s going to get you in trouble.”

Still can’t quite understand how that happened. #INDvAUS
STORY: https://t.co/RbWx4nyG92 pic.twitter.com/SiOxgAoOkR
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) February 19, 2023
Hayden said he agreed with DK’s views. “100 percent, I back that. Very very good explanation. What’s coming in front of you has no relevance to what’s coming next. Or what’s gone behind you. You can only play moment moment.”

Australia’s 3rd-worse 9-wicket collapse (9-48) in the third innings of a Test after 9-36, Cape Town, 2011 and 9-47 v World XI at the SCG, 2005
— Ric Finlay (@RicFinlay) February 19, 2023
Karthik then talked about how the batsmen would have felt when in the dressing room, watching things unfold. “In these kinds of pitches, when you are sitting outside, you are going to come in, you always get a feeling there is a lot happening, how are you going to play, are you going to get out as soon as that happens.”

Sanjay Manjrekar said perhaps Australia felt after what happened in Nagpur, they thought they needed a pre-game plan on how to bat aggressively here but re-iterated Karthik’s statement that if they had one strategy it should have been not to over-d- the sweep shot on a low surface.