Perth Test fallout: It’s mud-slinging time in Australia but beyond the noise, what’s ailing Pat Cummins and Co? | Cricket News

“Did you see how quickly the media and former cricketers turned on the Australian team?” Robin Smith, former England batsman who lives in Perth these days, chuckled at his dry observation. “Welcome to the life of England players from my time, I say! But there indeed is a problem, of course.”On its front page, a day after the Perth game, The West Australian newspaper had a picture of Steve Smith wincing in pain as the ball hits his midriff. The headlined caption was a snarl: R.I.P, with a picture of a skull tagged to it. Below ran the text: ‘Australia’s old and out of form team humiliated’.
Most newspapers and television have been wringing their hands about the team. Even the press conferences in the last two days with Josh Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins were a bit terse. Nothing that a grand win in Adelaide can’t set right, but right now, it’s chaos and mud-slinging time in Australia.
To come from India and see this has been a tad amusing. Such was the understandable fuss about the Indian team’s state of affairs during the horic home series defeat to New Zealand that much of the other side, Down Under, was forgotten a touch.
Some are over-reactions from former players and tabloids but some of the issues, as Robin Smith says, are indeed a problem.
Australia had last played a Test match before Perth nine months ago. They couldn’t find any opener from the domestic cricket and pushed Nathan McSweeney, a middle-order batsman, to open. Not that there’s anything wrong with it per-se, as one of India’s most impactful openers was a middle-order batsman in Virender Sehwag, but the way they arrived at McSweeney was a touch worrying. Considering they knew the schedule, they wasted some valuable Test game time handing David Warner an extended farewell. They also took Steve Smith’s offer to open in the Tests, which was presented him as “new challenge”.
Some in the Australian media have termed the Warner-farewell-and-opener-Smith phase as “vanity projects” that could have been better served giving chances to openers in the circuit. They had Marcus Harris, a former opener still amongst runs in domestic cricket, but they chose not to go to him, perhaps already wary about the aging nature of the team.
“Or even look at the potential replacements for Marnus Labuschagne. Why do you think he will continue to get chances? Because there is no one really out there banging the door down,” said Robin Smith. It does raise questions about Australian domestic cricket, whatever happened to the much touted, fiercely competitive tournament.
“It was undoubtedly a strong tournament. And its USP as opposed to say England’s domestic structure, or even India’s in those days, was how it wasn’t bloated. Just a small number of teams playing in it and there were no easy games. So if that structure hasn’t changed much, then one has to wonder if it’s just one of those things happening across the cricketing world: the focus of players is more on T20s and white-ball cricket. That the extra batsman in the squad for Perth Test was Josh Inglis, a T20 expert, says much,” Smith added.
On paper, a bowling attack that reads Cummins, Hazlewood, Mitch Starc, and Nathan Lyon should be definitely rated higher than India’s. Jasprit Bumrah is operating at a higher level, but the collective might of other bowlers should be in Australia’s favour. And to be fair to them, they did roll out India for 150 in the first, and couldn’t quite get the pitch at its ideal time in the second. Even though they are all aging, a sight probably best captured Lyon’s changed bowling action.
Until last year or so, one of the most defining visuals of his bowling was how high he would kick up that left leg of his just prior to release. It would infuse energy through the crease, align his body perfectly in that side-on position. In Perth, it barely lifted much. But despite all that, as the first-day performance showed they are a formidable unit. Especially if and when the more than useful Scott Boland is added to the Test squad.
It’s the batting that remains a worry. And though much of the fuss revolves around Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, the opener McSweeney, it will perhaps come down to Usman Khawaja to lift the team. Ever since he made his comeback a few years back, he has been rock solid and churning out big knocks rather regularly. He would play a tired swivel pull in the second innings as if to suggest he had already mentally checked out of that contest then. But he has faced and negated the likes of Bumrah before with panache; if he can do it again, the batting can start to look a lot better.
There are concerns about Mitch Marsh’s fitness and while his seam bowling remains a valuable extra option for Australia, it’s his batting that is the main KRA in his performance appraisals. His counter-attacking batting has been a tool that has revived Australia from a few mini crises in the last couple of years, and along with Travis Head, that style of batting does work against the Indian team.
The Indian fans found out that their team’s fortunes weren’t as bad as they thought during the home series – not just the fans, but even the insiders around the team indicate even the mood within wasn’t too flash about this tour. The youngsters in the Indian team stood up rather dramatically – be it the newbies Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy, or not-a-senior-yet Yashasvi Jaiswal. Australia don’t have such youngsters in the team, barring McSweeney, and much of their bouncebackability depends on their veterans. Not just reputations, but their careers are at stake for a couple of them.
“You have to be a fool to write off a Smith or a Khawaja,” says Robin Smith. “You also have to not be so smart to think the revival can happen if they are on an auto-pilot mode. I got that feeling to be honest in the Perth Test. Look, Bumrah’s spell on that first day was one of the best Test spells I have ever seen, but some of the Australian batting after that was rather below-par. Perhaps, Australia get complacent about this series after seeing India’s performances against New Zealand or after they bowled India out for 150 on first day, thinking the job was done. And they got blown away the counter-assault from Indians.
And Smith knows all too well that things can turn quickly. “It could come down to that pitch in the pink-ball Test at Adelaide. If it proves a bowler’s paradise, a 2-3 day game, then it’s a lottery in essence. If Australia wins that, then we are back on even keel in the series.”