Say it ain’t so Joe: Aussie top order crumbles

Australia’s busted, brittle batting threw away a chance to claw its way back into the second Test on Monday and threw the selectors an enormous headache ahead of the third.

Joe Burns walks off after his dismissal for an eventful four runs from 10 balls Picture: AFP

Australia’s busted, brittle batting threw away a chance to claw its way back into the second Test on Monday and threw the selectors an enormous headache ahead of the third.

The possibility of playing a Sydney Test grows with each passing day and the SCG track is the one which is most likely to favour the visitors.

David Warner is now under pressure to rush back from injury and risk more damage to his groin in the hope that he can provide something to this jaded and out of sorts squad.

Opener Joe Burns is batting like a nowhere man and has to be put out of his misery. Steve Smith continues a run of alarming form which suggests an extended period in a cricket bubble may have proven too much for a man who could never get enough of it. He looks like he needs a break after four months in the fish bowl, but is no chance of getting one.

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And, Travis Head continues to underwhelm. In another circumstance his head would be on the chopping block, but selectors will be loath to signal panic by making too many changes.

To think that ahead of the first Test the debate centred around how to include all the available talent into one team.

Will Pucovski’s concussion and Warner’s groin injury triggered the chaos. Poor form and fatigue have exacerbated it.

The Australians finished with a lead of two runs but the entire top order had come and gone. Essentially they find themselves 6-2. Even if Cameron Green and Pat Cummins conspire to perform some sort of miracle it will do nothing to disguise the problems.

When Umesh Yadav limped off in the fourth over of his spell a door opened for the Australians to work their way back into this match.

Unfortunately this batting line up at this moment in time is in no fit state to navigate its way out of anything.

Yadav has torn his calf which means India is now down to is fifth, possibly sixth choice seamers, which would usually signal trouble for a visiting side, but not one when the hosts batsmen are in such a state.

The Australians won the first Test, but they did it because their attack was so good it could compensate for the batsmen failing to reach 200 in their first innings as they did again here on the first day.

While Warner did a fitness Test beneath the Ponsford Stand on day three of the gripping MCG Test his mate and opening partner, Burns, failed one in the middle.

Pucovski, whose name has been forgotten in all the chaos of this summer’s cricket, is nowhere in sight.

Harris is waiting his chance to return. His good returns, including a double century, in four Sheffield Shield innings should not have been ignored ahead of the first Test, especially when Burns succession of low scores looked like a cry for help.

Burns, should have been run out, could have been given out LBW and appeared intent on finding a way to get out during 10 balls in the middle. He backed up a duck in the first innings with four here.

It was agonising to watch the affable opener look so helpless and sad to see him trundle off when the end inevitably came. A listener to SEN radio station texted in that his girlfriend was in tears watching what should be his last Test for some time.

The loyalty selectors have shown to this point may become cruelty should they subject Burns to more torment. He made a half century against a dispirited Indian attack in the last Test, but that was the exception to the rule for the Queenslander in a summer where his other 12 innings have produced just 74 runs.

Warner sprinted well but signalled some pain when turning during his fitness Test,

With Matthew Wade (40) doing a reasonable impression of an opener in the first two Tests and will probably have to stay out of position unless Head and Burns are both dropped.

An Australian top six of: Warner, Harris, Labuschagne, Smith, Wade, Green reads a lot better than what has been on display at the MCG.

“If Warner comes back then unfortunately I think right now it probably has to be Burns that goes,” Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7 soon after the opener failed again.

“They stuck with him for the first Test and he did repay them in the second innings there. But the difficult thing with the Australian summer is if you leave Joe Burns out now what’s he going to do?

“He’s going to play Big Bash cricket, there‘s no Sheffield Shield cricket to play. Even Davey Warner hasn’t played a game in a while, but he’ll slot in when he’s fit.

“I will be very, very surprised if he doesn‘t play. With his record, David Warner walks back into the side.”

All of this is not to detract from the excellence of India’s attack in the match.

They have strangled the Australian batsmen, forcing them to inch forward hesitantly. Without Warner there to place pressure on the attack the pressure has flowed down the order.

They did exactly the same when Warner – and Smith – were absent two years ago.

Jasprit Bumrah is an exquisite bowler whose performances are better than his seven wickets at 24 in the series suggest.

Ashwin is on his sixth visit to these parts and has learned more every time. In 2011-12 he took nine wickets at 62.7, but 2016-17 he had a return of 21 at 27. His flight, dip and variation are the marks of a master of his craft.

None of the top order is willing to put pressure back on him which is understandable.

It will be a restless night for the Australians and there promises to be quite a few of them for the selectors before the third Test, wherever that is, on January 7.