Matthew Hayden and Allan Border fume at Australian collapse in Delhi

Cricketing legends have been left in disbelief at the state of the Australian batting unit - with one taking aim at captain Pat Cummins.

Cricket’s legends have lined up to rip into Pat Cummins’ men after another diabolical collapse in Delhi.

Australia began the third day’s play at the Feroz Shah Kotla on 61 for 1, only to be bowled out for 113 before lunch in 110 disastrous balls.

It’s one thing to be beaten comprehensively, and it’s another for your opposition to be laughing at your incompetence.

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Ravindra Jadeja, taking home his second player of the match award for the series after his career-best 7/42, simply chuckled when asked whether the Australians, having seen Alex Carey and Usman Khawaja sweep with limited success in the first Test in Nagpur, and inspired doubtless by tales of Matthew Hayden in 2001, should have played the sweep as rashly as they did.

“Not on this kind of wicket,” Jadeja laughed.

Pat Cummins hacked across the line at his first ball from Ravindra Jadeja. Picture: Fox Sports

It was less funny for Hayden himself, who was discussing the matter on the BCCI’s world commentary feed.

“I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed,” Hayden said .

“They’re world-class players, and they’ve got everything to win this session, and everything to lose.

“They did it so well last (night) in those few overs, strong scoring rate, good defence, proactive batting, but what we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia.

“It’s a disaster because they’ve gone way over the edge in terms of their aggressive play.”

Fellow Aussie great Allan Border, known in his playing days as Captain Grumpy, was even more scathing, calling it “panicky, frenetic batting.”

“I’m disappointed, I’m shell shocked,” Border said.

“Angry about the way we went about our work today.

“No one got in there and tried to stem the flow with some good defensive cricket.

“They were getting out playing sweep shots, reverse sweeps, playing shots to just about every ball.

“You just can’t get away with that on that sort of track.”

Hayden also stressed the importance of defence when having a plan to sweep.

“When you hack across the line, you have to give yourself some chance,” Hayden said.

“(Cummins) has gone in with a premeditated plan to sweep ball one instead of understanding the defence has to be there.

“Build on it.”

Steve Smith (background) very rarely sweeps, and got out the first time he tried it this series. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Hayden famously used the sweep to great effect on the 2001 tour of India, leading the series run tally with 549 runs at an average of 109.80.

He attributes his success to having attended a spin camp in 1999 under the supervision of Bishen Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna in Chennai.

Two years later Hayden scored a magnificent 203 in Chennai in the third Test of the 2001 series.

Prasanna told Cricinfo in 2008 that Hayden came to him pushing for the ball and not allowing it to come to him, in a similar manner to the Australian dismissals in the first Test in Nagpur.

“We told him, either you take the ball on the full or wait,” Prasanna said.

“We also talked about his sweep shot.

“Some batsmen usually take the left leg out and expose the middle stump.

“We asked Hayden to get in line a bit more before he plays that shot forcefully.”

Hayden then asked Ross Harris, then-curator at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, to create a “slow turner” for him to practice ahead of the India tour.

Matthew Hayden was like a dog with a bone learning how to play the sweep ahead of Australia’s 2001 tour of India.

Brett Geeves wrote in 2017 for Fox Sports of Hayden’s meticulous preparation for the tour, saying he “spent six months without sleep hitting sweep shots” on that “ruggedly prepared” practice wicket in Brisbane to emulate the conditions in the subcontinent.

“I am told that Hayden would replicate a full day’s play by having spinners bowl to him for two hours from 10:30 to 12:30 - before stopping for a 40 minute lunch and going again for a two-hour session,” Geeves wrote.

A quarter of Australia’s 40 wickets in the series so far have fallen to the sweep, with Australia’s sweep shot percentage in the second innings in Delhi an astonishing 10.7 per cent compared to India’s 1.3 per cent, according to CricViz.

It was evidently a conscious ploy from the Aussies, with even sweep-averse Steve Smith getting in on the action.

Steve Smith has faced 1595 balls in India over 8 Test matches, and in that decade-long period, has played only 18 sweeps according to Alex Malcolm at Cricinfo.

Despite that, with Australia in a position to take control of the second Test, he attempted his first sweep of the entire series to Ravichandran Ashwin, sparking an extraordinary collapse, the likes of which have not been seen since the turn of the century.

This is despite the fact that Australia’s most successful batters this series, besides Usman Khawaja who has practised the stroke as an established part of his arsenal for many years, have not been overly reliant on the sweep.

Peter Handscomb scored 72 not out in the first innings, and only played the one sweep from his 142 deliveries, while Travis Head top scored in the second innings having not played one at all.

Honestly, that shot from Pat Cummins was pathetic. What on earth was that???? #INDvAUS#Cricket

— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) February 19, 2023

I am choosing to get outraged about the doctored Indian decks again rather than accept the reality they bask in these conditions and we don't have many answers #moretroublethanearlysettlers

— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) February 19, 2023

Hey Pat, big collapse here. Go out and just try and settle things a bit.

Pat: #INDvAUSpic.twitter.com/r8YDogccXo

— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) February 19, 2023

When India have swept, it’s been to deliveries outside the line of the stumps and their batters have gotten their head inside the line of the ball, minimising risk and maximising options - a stark contrast to the panicked Australians planting their feet across off stump.

Asked about the tactic in the post-match press conference, Cummins was at a loss, admitting the Australians had “overplayed” their attempts to put pressure back on India.

“Perhaps some guys went away from their methods,” Cummins said.

“Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross-batted shots which might not be our preferred method.”

Pre-series optimism was sky-high, with Allan Border, Adam Gilchrist, Kerry O’Keefe and Ian Smith all predicting an Australian series victory, but now the focus turns to avoiding a 4-0 whitewash, with the tourists needing other results to go their way in order to qualify for the World Test Championship final in June.

If Australia lost 4-0 to India, a 2-0 away series win for Sri Lanka against New Zealand would see them qualify for the final alongside India, despite Australia sitting at the top of the World Test Championship standings at the moment with India in second place.

Originally published as Matthew Hayden and Allan Border fume at Australian collapse in Delhi