'Not playing tour game was a wrong move': Michael Clarke on Australia's batting collapse

The Australian cricket team’s decision not to play any tour games ahead of the Border - Gavaskar Trophy 2023 didn’t age well as the Pat Cummins-led side suffered their second consecutive loss on Sunday. India won the second Test in Delhi by six wickets to take a 2-0 series lead, after claiming a win by innings and 132 runs in Nagpur. Interestingly, both matches concluded on Day 3 itself, as Australia’s batting woes in spinning tracks were left exposed to the world.

In the second Test, when Australia lost nine wickets in the first session of Day 3 to get bowled out for 113 runs in their second batting innings. Speaking about the team’s disappointing show, former Aussie captain Michael Clarke said he is not surprised with the result as visitors didn’t play any practice game ahead of the series. Australia had earlier refused to play a practice game as they felt the conditions didn’t match the actual conditions.

 

 

 

 

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"Not surprised by what I’m seeing"

Speaking on Big Sports Breakfast, Clarke said the team should have played atleast one warm-up game to get used to the conditions.”I’m not surprised by what I’m seeing because we didn’t have a tour game. Major, major, major mistake. There should have been at least one game over there to get used to the conditions. Selection for the first Test, major, major mistake. Second Test, blokes sweeping, we saw enough of that the first Test match,” the 2015 World Cup-winning captain said.

Michael Clarke on Australia batsmen playing sweep shots

Several Aussie batters sacrificed their wickets to the sweep shot in Delhi as Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja registered a 10-wicket match haul, including seven wickets in the second innings. “They’re not the right conditions to sweep when you start your innings. And they’re never going to be the right conditions to reverse sweep against the spin at the start of your innings,” Clarke further explained.

Australia’s approach of tackling the spin challenge with sweep shot became a major talking point for the cricketing world on Sunday. "It doesn’t matter how many support staff there are around, you’re playing for Australia. Surely as a batsman playing at the highest level, you calculate that risk versus reward. Against spin bowling on a pitch like that, you would say my ‘swim between the flags’ is play straight, hit with spin,” said Clarke.