‘Tactically, we were found wanting’

Former India fielding coach R Sridhar says team lost series to Australia since they hadn’t prepared as well as the 2018-19, 2020-21 tours; feels pace attack this time wasn’t as vicious, barring Bumrah

The script went horribly wrong for the Gautam Gambhir-coached Indian team as they lost 1-3 in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia. It has led to widespread resentment especially since the Ravi Shastri-coached side had set the tone with successive Test series wins in Australia during the 2018-19 and 2020-21 tours.

“Those two series wins were a landmark in Indian cricket history like VVS Laxman’s epic 281 in 2001. It is a watershed moment, going to Australia and beating them in their own territory. It set the tone, but unfortunately, we lost this series thanks to bad tactics and poor planning,” said R Sridhar, the former Indian fielding coach, who was part of Shastri’s support staff.

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R Sridhar

Sridhar lamented India’s repeated first innings and top-order failures. “If India were successful in the last two tours, it was because of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. They put runs on the board. Pujara stood like a rock. He frustrated the Aussie attack with his stoic batting.

“I thought an experienced batter like KL Rahul would take up Pujara’s role.  But Rahul could never come up with a big score despite coming good at Perth. It was a below-par performance in the series. Rohit Sharma never performed in Australia but Kohli was one of the main run-getters. This time, he was repeatedly dismissed in the same fashion. Perhaps it has something to do with his hand-eye coordination. Every batter struggles after 35, so, Kohli is no exception,’’ added Sridhar.   

Most importantly, the former Hyderabad left-arm spinner felt India did not have a back-up bowler to Jasprit Bumrah. “On the 2018-19 tour, the bowling attack knew where to attack with Bumrah in the forefront and we had the excellent [Mohd] Shami and the well-primed Ishant Sharma. That was probably one of the better fast-bowling attacks to travel to Australia. They were mean and aggressive. It is simple... if you want to win Test series in Australia, you need to fight fire with fire.’’

But this time, India had an inexperienced pace attack. “Bumrah was a one-man pace army. Siraj bowled well in patches and did not have the firepower as he showed in the 2020-21 series. Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep were good but not good enough to make an impact like Shami or Ishant or Umesh Yadav. A fit Shami could have made a huge difference to the Indian attack,” Sridhar said.

Sridhar highlighted some of the tactical blunders during the series. “We could have bowled first in Adelaide and Sydney although we escaped in Perth, thanks to Bumrah’s inspired spell. We should have backed the bowlers on a wicket that had juice. Tactically, we were found wanting in many ways. They didn’t bowl bouncers to Travis Head. The way we bowled to Cummins, who stays on the leg side, was puzzling. We kept it tight to Smith last time and this time we didn’t bowl to his bodyline. He got away with a couple of hundreds.”  

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