06 March,2017 08:24 AM IST | | Satish Viswanathan
Whenever the hosts have been tested this season, they have always come up with right answers but the dismal show against Australia in the first Test seems to have done them in mentally
Hosts India have been tested almost right through the long home season. Every time they have come up with the right answers, riding on, among other things, immense self-belief. One or the other batsman would come good, the tail would wag, and if R Ashwin didn't get you, Ravindra Jadeja would. The same could be said about Mohd Shami or Umesh Yadav. But the Pune show, dismal as it was, seems to have done them in mentally.
No lack of effort
On the face of it, restricting the Australians to a mere 197 from the full 90 overs on the second day (final Australian tally was 237 for 6) is no mean thing but when you have been bowled out for a mere 189 against an attack comprising Nathan Lyon and Stephen O'Keefe (Mitchell Starc was almost a mere bystander) and you are up against a very raw Australian batting line-up (save David Warner and Steve Smith), it's just not good enough.
It was not for lack of effort though as every Indian bowler, especially the quicks Ishant Sharma and Umesh, bowled their hearts out. But there has to be more thought beyond the effort. On view was some very unidimensional thinking. Till the 80th over, neither of the Indian pacers were used from the pavilion end (Ishant picked up his only wicket in the 80th from that end).
Ashwin not at his best
Ashwin, who didn't bowl a single ball from the far end, persisted with attempting to hit the rough that Lyon exploited on Day One, bowling as he did from over the wicket even to the many left-handers in the visiting line-up. The carrom ball was hardly used. Bowling round the wicket was an option used very reluctantly, and the world's No. 1 bowler waited for either the pitch to do something or the Aussies to make a mistake.
His constant bowling from over the wicket to the left-handers took the leg-before out of the equation and as Matt Renshaw later said, it allowed them to plan their batting better.
Silver lining
To add to it all, his spin twin Jadeja bowled just 16 overs in the day, something that Cheteshwar Pujara later attributed to there being no rough in the centre of the pitch. So, does Jadeja only depend on the rough to get his wickets? Surely, he's a better bowler than that. That Jadeja still picked up three wickets makes it more strange.
There is a silver lining though. Thanks to the defensive bowling, the Aussies are only 48 runs ahead.
If the Indian bowlers can wrap up the remaining four wickets in a trice, the batsmen will get another opportunity to redeem themselves while allowing the bowlers to look forward to bowling in the fourth innings on a responsive track.
