Border–Gavaskar Trophy: Are cracks showing in the Australian citadel?

For a change, the Australians are facing the heat. The 295-run defeat at Perth has not only seen their plans of trying to stump the visitors with chin music backfire badly, but the rumblings of a divide in the dressing room have caused major damage to their image in the build-up to the second Test under the lights in Adelaide.

It’s still early days in the five-Test series and Pat Cummins’ men must be fancying their chances of bouncing back in the pink ball Test in 10 days’ time. But a snide remark from senior paceman Josh Hazlewood after the third day’s play in Perth has given rise to the possibility of a passing-the-buck game in that camp.

Asked about how Australia would approach the fourth day with a Herculean task ahead of them, Hazlewood responded: “You probably have to ask one of the batters that question. I’m sort of relaxing and trying to get a bit of physio and a bit of treatment and I’m probably looking mostly towards the next Test and what plans we can do against these batters.”

A knee-jerk comment which didn’t sit well among the former Australian greats, though Cummins understandably played it down. What, however, got lost in the din was the remaining part of Hazlewood’s bytes: “I guess the batters are just sticking to what they do, their preparation. They’ll have a hit in the morning and talk around plans of what happened in the first innings, how they can negate that and move forward and improve on that.”

The damage was done and the first person to question it was TV pundit Adam Gilchrist: “That tells me there is potentially a divided change room. I don’t know if there is. I might be reading too much into that.”

Unwarranted: Warner

David Warner, the swashbuckling opener who had been a part of that dressing room till the other day, was critical about the lack of support for the batters by a senior bowler after they had scripted many a golden moment altogether. “There’s not a lot of runs in that change room at the moment, but to have the support from a senior bowler... those comments probably weren’t warranted. I don’t think there’s a divide in there, you probably see [this sort of thing] in great teams as well... you could come off after a long day and start pointing fingers, but I don’t think there’s a divide.”

Weighing in on the issue, Ravi Shastri felt there could be some mental cracks among the Aussies rather than actual animosity within the side. “But there are some mental cracks as well in the opposition. Having come to Australia for 30–40 years, I think this is the first time an Indian team is feeling that ‘You know what, we’re better than the opposition in their own backyard!’ I don’t think an Indian team has ever thought that way. Quietly, they will be thinking ‘We will have to lose it here’.”

In hindsight, it may be fair to say that Hazlewood’s comment was a result of frustration to find the boot is now on the other foot. There were enough indications that the Australian citadel had been under threat for quite sometime and the gap had certainly narrowed between them and India in recent times. The past decade has not seen the Aussies beating India in any of the four series for Border–Gavaskar Trophy, two of them being in their own backyard.

The current golden generation of Aussies, the reigning World Test Championship (WTC) winners and ODI world champions, are not getting any younger — and truth be told, their much-respected domestic structure has failed to produce adequate replacements like in India.

The best example is that of Nathan McSweeney, the 25-year-old opener who replaced Warner, had been essentially a No. 3 batter for South Australia; but was chosen as the right candidate for the job.

It’s understandable that the debutant failed in both innings at Perth, but the Australian top order surely lacked spine, with Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne failing to amass even 50 runs across the Test.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Chappell broke it down: ‘’It was Australia’s batting performance which was more concerning. India’s bowlers, spearheaded by the lethal Jasprit Bumrah, looked sharper and more menacing. By the way, please stop this nonsense of questioning Bumrah’s technique.

”It is unique, but it is unequivocally clean. It demeans a champion performer and the game to even bring it up. The top order is a major concern. To avoid forced changes, they must deliver in Adelaide.’’

Hard to believe that the cupboard may be actually bare for the side with the most enviable track in international cricket in history. The Adelaide Test could well be a make-or-break one for them.