BEHIND THE SPORTS DESK: Were the Aussies really that bad?

IN Behind the Sports Desk Moose and Pottsy ask whether the Test series was won by the Indians, or was it lost by the Baggy Greens?

CRICKET: It was a Test series that had plenty of twists and turns, but will always be reminded as a historic moment for Indian cricket.

Thanks to the efforts of leading batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (521) and lethal seamer Jasprit Bumrah (21 wickets), India secured a 2-1 victory in the series, their first on Australian soil.

But was it a series win that can be chalked up to the extra efforts of the Indians, or did the Baggy Greens cost themselves on the field?

Moose and Pottsy go Behind the Sports Desk to find out.

Ravindra Jadeja of India (left) celebrates with Virat Kohli after taking the wicket of Marcus Harris of Australia on day three of the Fourth Test match between Australia and India at the SCG in Sydney, Saturday, January 5, 2019. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY, IMAGES TO BE USED FOR NEWS REPORTING PURPOSES ONLY, NO COMMERCIAL USE WHATSOEVER, NO USE IN BOOKS WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT FROM AAP. Picture: DAN HIMBRECHTS

MOOSE ELKERTON: Aussies their own worst enemy

IT'S time we face it, Australian cricket is in a deep hole, and it is only about to get worse.

We were dismal against India, too many times did batsmen get starts, and not go on with it. 30 is not the new 50, and it should never be.

The most disappointing fact to come out of the series on home soil was our lack of temperament at the crease.

Unlike the staunch defence of India's best bat Cheteshwar Pujara, the Australian line-up could not seem to let balls outside off stump go through to the keeper. We played at every delivery, thus allowing ourselves to be out every delivery.

Over the past 12 months of cricket, Usman Khawaja is the only Australian batsman to face more balls (1391) than Pujara did in the four Tests against Australia (1258).

Khawaja is also the only Australian batsman to hit a century in the past year, with no-one averaging more than 40 in the Baggy Green.

But while the focus has been on our batting, our bowlers have also slipped. For the first time we had a team declare against us three straight times.

We are meant to have the best bowling attack in the world, yet we got schooled on our own home decks by India.

We can whine all we want about flat tracks, but we have produced them for five years and we need to be able to fight in all conditions.

The worst part of it all, we only have two Tests before an overseas Ashes tour where we will be decimated.

Even Steve Smith can't help us out of this hole.

JARRARD POTTSY POTTER: We can't deny how good India was

TO PUT Australia's historic series loss against India down to a failure of Australian batsmen to score tons and bowlers to get wickets is to completely diminish just how well India played to earn their 2-1 victory.

To put it bluntly, the Indian players out-played Australia in every single aspect of the game. They scored more runs, they took more wickets. I wasn't there but I'm sure they would've had a better water-to-cordial ratio too, that was how comprehensive their victory was.

Considering India is the best test team in the world, this should be a surprise to no-one.

Australian batsmen seemed to get a lot of starts, but not go on to make a big score. The Indian bowlers, especially the leading series wicket-taker Jasprit Bumrah, backed up by Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja in the absence of Ravi Ashwin, hardly gave the Aussies much room to dominate them, forced the poor shots out of them, and took their chances when they were there.

The Australian bowlers, lauded as the one saving grace of our dismal team, often managed to make inroads early against openers until a certain Cheteshwar Pujara strode to the crease, a man who was seeing the red ball like it was a watermelon, and went on to wear down and bat time against the Australians to score 521 runs at 74.42. That's before we even get to the stand-in best batter in the world, Virat Kohli.

Previous Indian teams that have toured have had a weak spot, which Australia have exploited. Not this time.

Originally published as BEHIND THE SPORTS DESK: Were the Aussies really that bad?