This is awful but the solution is hard to find for Australia

This is bad and it’s going to get worse. The problem is obvious but the solution elusive.

‘Usman Khawaja ... dropped in Sri Lanka, ignored in India then recalled for this game on the strength of what exactly?’ Photo: AP

This is bad and it’s going to get worse. The problem is obvious but the solution elusive.

Australia have lost a Test against Bangladesh, but more importantly they have lost their way in Asia. Again.

All thoughts that something was gained by a single Test victory against India on the way to a series loss were banished by the performance against the ninth-ranked side over the past four days.

Before lacing up the black boots, it is important to acknowledge the efforts of the home team, who are celebrating just their 10th win in what is their 102nd Test.

It was deserved. It was magnificent. It will be celebrated everywhere in the cricket world with the exception of these colonial shores. Bangladesh were three for bugger all when the match began but elevated themselves on the shoulders of a brilliant all-round performance by Shakib Al Hasan.

Even when David Warner and Steve Smith threatened to counterpunch this morning, the locals held their nerve.

This was a historic victory. The first over Australia in those parts. It was witnessed by the country’s Prime Minister and it will be remembered for decades to come.

The West Indies’ first victory in 17 years over England the previous eve was merely an entree to this event. The two results combine to whisper — hesitantly — that the oldest and longest form of the game is not done with.

Those that were minnows one minute have taken the proportions of Moby Dick the next. Those that were whales have been reduced to blubber.

These are moments the sport needs to survive. May there be more of them.

If the Australians can take any comfort, it is that the old foe heading out this summer for the Ashes have suffered a loss at home to a side nobody gave a chance two days before. They can also take comfort from Warner’s century and the bowling of Nathan Lyon, but they are a thin blanket against the chill of this result and the many that precede it.

Australia can’t win in Asia anymore. We play suboptimal cricket on the subcontinent. Our batsmen have developed an almost fatal dust allergy.

Even the lowliest sides now know the blueprint to win against sides from these parts. There’s no science or secrecy to it. Its simplicity is its beauty: prepare one cooked pitch, spice it with a handful of spinners then set it aside until the aghast dinner guests start running for the exits.

In the past 23 Test matches played in such conditions in the past 12 years, Australia have won two solitary games. The first was Nathan Lyon’s debut game when he took five wickets in an innings in Sri Lanka in 2011 and the second in this year’s first Test in Pune.

Hands were wrung after losing a series to the sixth-ranked Sri Lankan outfit last year. Perhaps necks should be after this failure.

Nobody aside from the slow bowlers seems to know what they’re doing. Coaches, selectors, high-performance staff and the world’s best-paid cricketers don’t seem to have a clue.

When a wicket spins, they become deer in the headlights.

Pitches expose the problem, but not just the ones the Australians find themselves shamed on so regularly when they travel.

There was much talk after the drubbing against Sri Lanka about picking players for the conditions. It’s not a bad idea but you can only take it so far. Smith pointed out then that trying to judge your best players of spin in domestic cricket is rather pointless because playing an Australian offie on a drop-in at Adelaide is nothing like playing a subcontinental spinner on the dustbowls of Asia.

Horses for courses is a phrase that rolls off the tongue but it is problematic in practice. A horse is fine, but maybe an elephant or camel is what’s needed.

Usman Khawaja was dropped in Sri Lanka, ignored in India then recalled for this game on the strength of what exactly? If the answer is he had to get some cricket under his belt before the Ashes then he has to play the second Test despite a poor showing here.

The bald truth of the situation is the Ashes are more important anyway.

Warner at least showed something but critics will complain his century on the last day was a long time coming. It was a magnificent effort, perhaps one of his best, but it is his first century in such conditions since one in Dubai in 2013.

There’s no great shame in that. Ricky Ponting scored just one hundred against India — a fact that points to the deep roots of the problem.

Selectors at least got the balance of the bowling right in opting for Lyon, Ashton Agar, the two seamers and the part-time turn of Glenn Maxwell.

It might be pointed out that Steve O’Keefe, the architect of the win in Pune with his match return of 12-70 in February was not considered good enough for this match. He was, at least, winging his way to Bangladesh for the second Test as a replacement for the injured Josh Hazlewood as it all unravelled yesterday.

They may play three frontline spinners for the next match but bowling is not the real problem here. Just what is wrong with Australian batsmen? Is it their temperament or their technique? You will find arguments for both and you won’t find simple answers to what is a complex problem.

Not that long back, winning a series in India was the holy grail of Australian cricket. These days just winning a match is hard enough.