If the performance in the Test series earlier this year had suggested that the Australian players have finally found a way out to perform on spinning tracks in India, it has more or less evaporated with their performance in the ongoing five-match One-Day International series.
Steve Smith & Co. had given a heroic performance in the Test series, but have looked quite out of sorts in the first couple of ODIs. India’s spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have taken ten of the 19 wickets that have fallen so far, giving rise to speculations that the visiting batsmen are finding it tough to pick them up.
However, Australia opener David Warner, who himself has failed to get going so far, has dismissed the suggestions and has said the ‘odd one or two’ had caused the visitors’ downfall.
“I feel that the players can read the spinners,” he said at the pre-match press conference on Saturday (September 23). “And that it’s the odd one or two that when they can’t see the seam, then the players react off the wicket and that’s probably the odd one here or there.
“At the end of the day, you have to have a game plan against spin – whether or not to hit down the ground or sweep the ball. But when you’re losing wickets in clumps, you become tentative. So you have to apply that pressure [early]. If you get off to a good start and the spinners come on, it’s a different game then. It’s about the tempo of the game, and the situation of the game and I feel if we were in a different position, you’ll see a different mode against the spinners,” he added.
The Australia vice-captain was perhaps right in his assessment of his team’s batting failure in the first two games, as they could not get a solid start in either of the matches. In the series-opener in Chennai, they were reeling at 29 for three before the spinners made light work of their middle-order. In the second game at Eden Gardens, Bhuvneshwar Kumar did not let them get off to a good start by dismissing both the openers with only nine on the board.
Warner also leapt in defence of his opening partner Hilton Cartwright who has managed to score two runs in as many matches. The right-handed batsman never looked at ease during his short stays at the crease and is likely to make way for Aaron Finch once the latter recovers from his injury.
“It’s always challenging for a young guy to come into the team and take the bull by the horns. It is very, very difficult. Especially when you come over here and play for the first time on a world stage against one of the best ODI teams in their home backyard – it can be overwhelming. What he brings to us is a lot of energy and, I’ll say, experience in his knowledge of the game as well. He is a workaholic, he loves the game of cricket, he brings a good dynamic for us, and we thoroughly love having him here,”said Warner.
“You grow up on wickets that are fast and bounce, and then you come up to the subcontinent, and it’s your first Test series, it’s very hard to adapt. But when you keep coming back, there’s no excuse,” Warner added.