Paine’s ominous warning comes to pass

Tim Paine warned us. In the aftermath of the extraordinary last day of the first Test in Adelaide, he feared what might happen to Australia’s batting line-up.

Australian captain Tim Paine leads his team off the field after their loss to India in the second Test at the MCG

Tim Paine warned us. In the aftermath of the extraordinary last day of the first Test in Adelaide, Australia’s notably sane skipper felt “absolutely rapt” about his team’s bowling performance but thought that there remained “a lot of work to do with our batting”, which was “well below what we’d expect”.

Then a qualification, in a bid to find the balance between satisfaction and ambition. “So it’s a good thing to have a good win and not play anywhere near our best,” Paine added. “It fills our team with confidence.”

Well, yes. In sport, confidence is almost always held to be A Good Thing, without which One Cannot Do; negative sentiments such as the fear of failure or anxiety about injury are routinely decried. The sport psychologist will see you now …

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Yet a realistic self-estimation never hurt anyone, in any context. Yes, Australia’s is the ICC’s top-ranked Test team at present; but Steve Smith is also ICC’s male player of the decade, which at present hardly feels a helpful accolade.

Australia signified its approach first through Paine’s unhesitating decision to bat on Boxing Day, when reeling opponents, overcast sky and 11mm of grass made a case for the opposite.

It was, at the least, a statement of confidence in his batsmen’s capacity to endure through to better conditions later; it was let down at once by Joe Burns’ unnecessary push and Matthew Wade’s wild slog.

Most culpable of all in this game was Travis Head, a disappointingly easy mark from round the wicket. Two years ago in the corresponding Test, Head was bowled twice playing attacking shots; twice here he was caught in the cordon playing attacking shots; it hardly evinces much progress.

Subtract runs that Head peeled off against a pop-gun Sri Lankan attack here two years ago, and his Test average falls to 31.4. That he has played 13 home Tests and Glenn Maxwell none hardly seems a faithful reflection of their respective talents. But it’s a sorry comment on Australian batting stocks that Head has experienced so little pressure from below to retain his place.

It’s not, of course, that this is a new development. But at other times, the axis of Warner and Smith has been sufficient to paper over this batting line-up’s shortcomings. With one missing and the other missing in action, Australia seemed back to Boxing Day 2018, where, as here, the top six could not scrounge a half century between them.

India were prepared to battle, notably in the first session of day two, when batting conditions were probably at their toughest, with Pat Cummins bowling superbly.

Cheteshwar Pujara had less to show for his Boxing Day Test than two years ago, but still soaked up almost two hours of pressure, so that Ajinkya Rahane and Ravi Jadeja were placed to exploit the day’s best conditions, when Nathan Lyon was less effective than usual for the want of runs to bowl at.

By then, Australia were looking decidedly loose, even slightly surly, as bowlers were again expected to save batsmen’s blushes, amid the contagion of dropped catches — seven in the match. There were hands in the air, on heads, and on knees, like a ragged game of Simon Says.

The Australians got fussed by DRS, which to be fair had a bonkers match, with batsmen simultaneously out but not out and officials wrong but right, as though Erwin Schrodinger was third umpire not Blocker Wilson. But India over the journey had more to complain of and, really, didn’t. Ajinkya Rahane maintained his sang froid in the field as well as at the crease.

Paine’s men, ironically, saved their best til last. Cummins battled hard yesterday until Jasprit Bumrah found one of his bouncers from nowhere, jagging the ball back without seeming to go wide.

Cameron Green, meanwhile, is clearly a serious cricketer. At the crease, he stoops over what in his hands resembles the kind of bat you get for Christmas with a plastic set of stumps. But his basic technique is sound as a pound, and he looks like he derives as much satisfaction from defending a good ball as belting a bad one. The cut he played on his haunches off Bumrah to enter the 40s was as handsome as anything seen in the match.

But there was too much to do. India were patient and practical. They were accurate with the ball, tigerish in the field, with Ravi Jadeja to prowl rather than Prithvi Shaw to hide. They experienced a tremor at 2 for 19, but Rahane nailed a nerve-settling pull shot, and his 50 partnership with Shubman Gill took a breezy 59 balls.

Australia took the positive message from Adelaide that they could win from any position, their bowling being so strong and their home advantage so acute; more realistic might have been the sense that they got away with a flawed selection and an uneven performance in the First Test because India wandered into a perfect storm whipped up by Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

What are the lessons of Melbourne? Paine described his team as having played “pretty poor cricket, pretty sloppy cricket”. And he didn’t qualify the judgment.