Six words from Indian hero shows Aussie team is a laughing stock

An offhand comment from an Indian star says it all about Australia’s humiliating capitulation and the most embarrassing detail.

Ravindra Jadeja only needed six words to sum up the most embarrassing detail of Australia’s capitulation in the Second Test.

The Indian spinner carved through the Aussie batting line up on the final day in Delhi as Australia lost 8/28 at the end of its innings.

Watch Australia’s Tour of India. Every Test & ODI live & ad-break free during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

In 90 minutes, Australia went from 1/65 to all out for 113, with sweeps and reverse sweeps undoing all the good work from Australia.

Safe to say the sweep shot didn't work for the Aussies in the second innings. 😳 #INDvAUSpic.twitter.com/ndlu5cECyS

— News Cricket (@NewsCorpCricket) February 19, 2023

Far more than just the clear pre-meditated plan to combat India’s spinning wizards with the sweep shot, it was the clueless execution that compounded Australia’s baffling amateur hour show.

Six Aussies fell while trying to play the stroke in the second innings.

According to The Australian’s Peter Lalor the entire Indian team played just one sweep shot in its entire second innings where they chased the required total of 114 with six wickets in hand.

Jadeja’s words can now only be interpreted as a complete humiliation of the entire dressing room, coach Andrew McDonald and senior officials.

When speaking after the match Jadeja was asked if it’s a good idea to play the sweep shot to him. He laughed, before adding: “Not on this kind of wicket.”

As he went through the Aussie batting line up with figures of 7/42 there did not appear to be a sole Aussie batter to adjust their pre-meditated plans.

There were just two Aussie batters who faced more than 22 balls in the second innings with many attempting the reverse sweep before finding their guard.

Aussie sport commentator Gerard Whateley described it as “madness”.

He was far from the only one.

Aussie cricket legend Allan Border panned the Aussies’ performance as no player seemed interested in sticking around for the long haul.

“I’m disappointed, I’m shell-shocked, I’m angry about the way we went about our work today,” Border said.

“It was panicky, frenetic batting. No one tried to get in there and stem the flow with some good defensive cricket. They were just getting out playing sweep shots, reverse sweeps to just about every ball.

Cummins’ captaincy has come under the microscope. Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP

“You just can’t get away with that on this sort of track. You’ve got to have a method where you play within your limitations. You’re not playing on a flat belter where you can expand your game. When playing on a difficult surface, you’ve got to work out where your scoring options are and bat some time at the crease.”

Border took aim at Steve Smith’s dismissal and said: “When you’re playing cross bat shots and the ball is not bouncing, he miss that by a mile. You’re just giving the opportunity for the umpire to give him out

Michael Hussey said the Aussies were ruined by their attempt to constantly sweep across the line, calling it a “low percentage shot”.

While Hussey was critical of some of the dismissals, the worst wicket was that of Cummins.

On his first ball, the captain came on and played way over the ball to be bowled by Jadeja.

It was a ridiculous shot and Hussey was far from pleased.

“That’s just a horrible shot from the captain,” Hussey said.

“That’s terrible,” Brendan Julian agreed. “I don’t know what he was thinking Pat Cummins. First ball, I reckon he just thought ‘I’m going to be positive’ and panicked.”

Hussey continued: “He’s thought ‘I’m just going to get a quick 30’ to change the momentum of the game and get our lead up as much as we could.”

Woof! Picture: Fox Sports

Next was Alex Carey who played down completely the wrong line with a reverse sweep to lose his off-stump.

Julian said: “That was horrible from Alex Carey.”

Border joked: “I’m buying him a T-shirt, I’m banning the reverse sweep. This sort of cricket on these pitches, it’s not a high percentage shot. It’s the lowest percentage shot you can play, I just don’t get it.”

Border criticised the aggression from the Aussies and said “you can be positive in defence”.

Earlier, Matthew Hayden took aim at the ridiculous batting from the Aussies.

Hayden, who starred in Australia’s 2004 series win in India on the back of the sweep, said Australia had gone way too far with the tactic.

“I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed here,” Hayden said in commentary on Fox Cricket.

“(They’ve gone way too far with the sweep) Way too far. These are world class players and they have everything to win and everything to lose in this session. They did it so well last evening.

“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.

“What professional in life just hopes. No way. You’ve got to have a method and you have to think on your feet. You’ve got about 13 people in that dug out not playing the game all having their say on it.”

India's Ravindra Jadeja celebrates with teammates. Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP.

It was up to Cummins to face the media after the day’s play and his responses were unconvincing at best.

“Disappointed, we were ahead of the game but we slipped,” he said.

“Everyone controls their own game, some balls just have your name,” he added. “But I think there will be a review. Shot choice, did we go about it the right way?”

“I thought they bowled really well, it’s not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods,” Cummins told reporters.

“Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don’t think there’s any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross-batted shots, which might not be our preferred method.”

Originally published as Six words from Indian hero shows Aussie team is a laughing stock