Australian Test greats have blasted the current squad over their “astonishing” second innings capitulation on the third morning in Delhi.
Resuming day three of the second Test against India in a position to potentially win, Australia needed to dig in and play sensible cricket to build the lead towards 200.
But what they produced instead was the complete opposite – a “disaster” of a morning where they lost nine wickets for just 52 runs.
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After Travis Head nicked off to a beauty from Ravichandran Ashwin in the first over, what followed left cricket greats scratching their heads.
Of the next eight batters to be dismissed, five were out playing sweep shots – either conventional or reverse. Khawaja the night before was also out sweeping.
“I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed … they’re world class players, and they’ve got everything to win in this session, and everything to lose,” Matthew Hayden said on commentary during Fox Cricket’s coverage.
“They did it so well last [night] in those few overs, strong scoring rate, good defence, proactive batting, but what we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia.
“It’s a disaster because they’ve gone way over the edge in terms of their aggressive play.”
Among the worst offenders was skipper Pat Cummins, who looked to hoick Ravindra Jadeja over midwicket first ball and was bowled.
Hayden blew up at Cummins’ shot choice, suggesting he should have been able to read the game and adjust his game plan.
“You’ve got to think on your feet plus [and] read the game,” he said.
“You’ve got about 13 people in that dugout that aren’t playing the game, all having their say on it, and what they would have said knowing the trend of this venue is that first session is tricky – it’s not like the last session of day two, where the conditions slide on, ball is hard, drier wicket.
“It’s a little tacky this morning, so think! And then plan in the middle accordingly as a partnership.”
Allan Border said at lunch that Cummins and his peers panicked, before suggesting Aussie batters ought to be banned from playing the “highest-risk” reverse sweep.
“They panicked, and you can’t tell me that the reverse sweep or sweeping on that sort of pitch is the ideal way of scoring your runs,” he told Fox Cricket.
“There’s got to be another method on that surface other than the highest-risk shot. Why are they going to that shot so often?”
Mike Hussey agreed, saying the Australians blew a chance to win the test and keep the Border-Gavaskar trophy alive.
“They will be bitterly disappointed. Coming into today, they were in front of this test match – nine wickets in hand with a 60 odd run lead, he said.
“Unfortunately they just gave it away … a lot of them gave their wickets away to the Indians.
“Yep they bowled well, but I feel as though they gave them their wickets.”
Ravindra Jadeja finished with figures of 7-42, while Ravichandran Ashwin took the other three wickets for 59.
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