Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin criticised India’s approach to batting on day two at Dharamsala, singling out the manner in which the hosts played spinners Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe.
Clarke, who is currently for the match, minced no words about India’s supposed defensive approach, “If India do lose this Test match, I’ll tell you where they lost it – it’s 30 minutes before tea today, on day two,” Clarke was quoted by cricket.com.au. “It was so negative with their batting. Australia bowled spin from both ends, [India’s batsmen] sat on the crease and blocked and blocked and blocked,” he added.
Australia’s World Cup winning captain thought that India played into off-spinner Nathan Lyon’s hands by not moving the scoreboard, and that they are under pressure with their middle order back in the pavilion,
“If you sit there to someone like Nathan Lyon who does get that extra bounce, and can get the variation, you’ll get one with your name on it,” Clarke said. “Now they’ve lost quick wickets (and by) not playing the extra batsman, they’re under enormous pressure. If India can’t get a decent total in this first innings, batting last here is going to be extremely tough chasing 200 runs,” the 36-year-old added.
‘Pujara put pressure on Rahane’
Former Australia vice-captain and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin also weighed in on India moving the scoreboard at a languid pace.
While Cheteshwar Pujara yet another good outing with the bat, scoring a solid 57, Haddin thought that the India No 3 didn’t do enough to effect the scoring rate, “India have to win the Test match [to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy], and I don’t think you’re going to get better batting conditions than in that (second) session there,” Haddin said. “I was bit shocked that Pujara didn’t try to move the game forward a little bit,” he added.
Haddin also observed that Pujara’s strategy rubbed on his captain, who scored a steely 46, “It looked like he put a lot of pressure on [Ajinkya] Rahane, then he’s sort of got bogged down in his shell a bit too,” Haddin said.
India finished the second day’s play at 248/6, still 52 runs behind Australia’s first innings score of 300.
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