Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??
Reply #1862 –
Something that has been overlooked in all the media analysis is that India's bats haven't been wonderful either aside from Pujara. Pant was irresponsible to the extreme in the earlier tests, sure made big runs here but where was he under pressure in Perth? The openers have been given the lemon and sass, Kohli has has had moments, but the rest have been scratchy, the middle order have thrown wickets away when set etc. I don't care that they all average 55 and at home and our blokes average 40, it's not comparable. But the Indians, largely thanks to Pujara have had PARTNERSHIPS, one of which would have won us Adelaide. We haven't batted as a team, we've batted as a disparate bunch of individuals.
In years gone by Pujara would have been 120 Not Out and India would have been all out 320, if not for our crap bowling this season!
I'm not just blaming bowlers as our batsmen have been rubbish and the tell is blokes like Cummins and Hazelwood sticking around for runs, but there is no way India should be making 500 runs 6 wickets down on those pitches!
I'm not brave enough to state cause and effect, just that they are both guilty!
Also, it's too easy to blame the sandpaper, this problem is of CA's creation and it goes back a decade or more, back to the Waugh / Simpson / NSW / MCC dynasty era! it'll take another 5 or 10 years to dig themselves out of this hole, CA has a era of pain coming not unlike Carlton's TPP penalties, except CA's problems are self-inflicted!