How the hell did that happen? The tough questions Australia must answer

Perth: On the third evening of this Test match, a thoughtful-looking Pat Cummins picked up a food delivery outside Australia’s team hotel, as he pondered the consequences of three awful days for his team.

The game was already gone. Only the margin was still at issue. Cummins’ active role was done by dint of his decision to night watch in place of a befuddled Marnus Labuschagne. Cummins did not last long; Labuschagne’s stay was even shorter.

A couple of hours later, Cummins’ face wore the look of introspection that any captain would have in this situation. He had to be asking himself the same question as countless others around the country: how the hell did this happen?

The sight of one-way traffic over several days in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar showdown has generated a sense of something like panic around Australia, as followers of the national team processed a series of disturbing pictures from Perth. But that panic has merely flowed on from the chaos visible on the pitch.

Australia, a team that prided itself on composure and clear thinking, has looked lost throughout, essentially from the moment Jasprit Bumrah destroyed their top order on the first evening of the game. It was hard to discern whether Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja, to name the three senior batters, were undercooked, overcooked or both.

Compelled to back up quickly after the first innings, Cummins and his fellow bowlers were short of precision and focus. They were easy prey, it turned out, for the precocious Yashasvi Jaiswal, with plenty of help from the more seasoned KL Rahul and Virat Kohli.

Near enough to two days in the field set things up for the scrambled batters to be cut open once again by the magnificent Bumrah, who took rare delight in scything through debutant Nathan McSweeney and Labuschagne.

Stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah (front, right) has given Rohit Sharma a mighty head start.Credit: Getty Images

Like the best teams tend to do, India’s players backed each other up whenever needed, whether with the bat or the ball. Bumrah came into this match lacking his best pace partner Mohammed Shami, but Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana rose grandly to the occasion.

They had been well drilled by India’s lead-up to the match, which featured a Test series on home soil that resulted in a surprise defeat to New Zealand, but then a focused 10-day preparation in Perth, on pacy surfaces at the WACA Ground.

That combination of Tests and centre wicket training ensured the Indian side felt hardened and focused for what was to come, even as they missed captain Rohit Sharma for the first game. He was present at Perth Stadium for the final day of the game: what a head start Bumrah has given him.

New Zealand, meanwhile, had in turn been made ready for the India assignment by playing and losing two Tests in Sri Lanka. The art of scheduling for big series is an evolving one, but in the cases of both India and New Zealand those miles in the legs served a valuable purpose.

Australia’s high-performance arm, led by Ben Oliver, includes head coach Andrew McDonald, selection chair George Bailey and fellow selector Tony Dodemaide. They have spoken often of the build-up to this series being more than nine months in the making, but it has been a patchwork job.

A white-ball tour of the UK kicked things off and cost Australia Cameron Green through a back injury. Then the opening rounds of the Sheffield Shield competed for space and time with six white-ball games against Pakistan.

The most relevant of those games was an ODI on the same Perth square as this Test match, but that was also the fixture for which all Test players but reserve batter Josh Inglis were rested.

Players have been given a large say in how they prepare. For Cummins this meant not playing a single Shield game before the first Test. For Smith there was just one, on a lively surface against Victoria at the MCG.

McSweeney played plenty of Shield cricket and two Australia A games, but when it came to naming a reserve, it was the multi-format Inglis who was preferred even though he would not be ready for selection until Adelaide.

It can be argued, correctly, that more members of this squad have played more Shield games leading into the first Test than at any time since COVID-19. But it can also be argued, forcefully, that preparation for Pakistan, West Indies or even pre-Bazball England was not quite as important as preparing for India. After all, no other nation has beaten Australia on home soil in Tests since 2016.

The Australians had just one day of practice on the WACA square, when in previous years they had trained there for two. The pitch they used was on the edge of the square and not in its heart, because of a WBBL fixture played during the Test.

Alex Carey takes evasive action.Credit: Getty Images

On one level, the emphasis on not overtaxing Australia’s players was to do with the fact this is a five-match series against India rather than the usual four. Should they find some rhythm and go on to win out over the full journey, Perth’s disaster will be put into a different perspective. But it is a sizeable gamble.

It also speaks to how few capable candidates there are sitting underneath the current Test team. Reflexive calls to drop Labuschagne, for instance, open the question of who might replace him. Marcus Harris? Matt Renshaw? Pete Handscomb? Bumrah will not lose much sleep over that trio, nor the teenager Sam Konstas. Allrounder Beau Webster is another speculative option, and a sore Mitchell Marsh did little to inspire confidence as a bowler.

Moreover, to overcome a 1-0 deficit is a rare thing in Australian cricket history. Australian teams have typically started strongly and challenged opponents to run them down. Cummins might remember that last year’s World Cup began with a heavy defeat to India before the campaign gathered speed.

But to make such a hash of the first Test of a series, after months of bespoke preparation, is a sobering moment for Cummins and the decision-makers around him. Australian cricket’s followers expect better.

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