Labuschagne, Pucovski fifties hold Australia in good stead


Brief Scores: Australia 166/2 (Marnus Labuschagne 67*, Steve Smith 31*, Will Pucovski 62; Navdeep Saini 1-32) vs India

Australia made amends to their flimsy batting efforts earlier in the series to deliver an improved performance that helped them finish on a strong position of 166/2, on a rain-marred opening day of the third Test. Marnus Labuschagne remained unbeaten on 67 with Steve Smith for company at 31. Though debutant Will Pucovski had fortune on his side, his industrious 62 must have relieved a lot of creases in Australia's forehead given their top-order predicament. 

Sydney is known to be a batting paradise and hence, Tim Paine's call to bat first was a no-brainer. It wasn't a hitch for India either as they had an early shot at extracting whatever little juice there was in the otherwise belter of a track. David Warner brought some much-needed urgency to the table as he tapped and ran from the word go but got carried away with the flow and chased a wide tempter from Mohammed Siraj, who shared the new ball alongside Jasprit Bumrah in Umesh Yadav's absence, to perish nicking behind for 5. It was the maiden instance of Warner being dismissed for a score less than 10 in 25 home innings over the past four years. 

India resorted to short balls to exploit the chink in Pucovski's armour and compelled him into some ungainly ducks and sways. He also seemed a sureshot leg-before candidate with an exaggerated shuffle and a pronounced front-foot plonk but managed to safeguard his wicket with a rock-solid defence till persistent downpour, as forecast, proved a buzzkill, forcing umpires to take Lunch after just seven overs of play. The rain showed no signs of relenting and robbed nearly a session's worth of action. 

When the sun finally made its presence felt, Labuschagne and Pucovski joined hands to wear India down on a surface which had little demons in it. Spare for the on-song Ravichandran Ashwin who varied his pace gorgeously to ask a few nagging questions, the young right-handers dealt with each ball on its merit to unfurl an array of eye-pleasing strokes. A couple of catching opportunities tumbled in India's basket but Rishabh Pant made a hash of them to reprieve Pucovski, first off an attempted slash to Ashwin and then off a glove brush to Saini. His charmed life also saw him evade a run-out after having committed to a third run only to witness his partner hold his ground firm. 

Pucovski's urge to capitalize on the heap of luck and Ashwin's sudden dip in control and consistency gave Australia a boost in terms of the scoring rate. Labuschagne sensed the shift in dynamic and hit the gas pedal too as Australia entered Tea on 91/1, with him remaining unbeaten on 34 and Pucovski on 54. Saini, who bowled just the one over before the break since morning, was creamed for 9 runs, with his first ball in Test cricket yielding a boundary. 

Though Pucovski had been rather dexterous off his pads, the haphazard movements across to the off-stump led to India maintaining the ramrod straight channels in the belief of an error at some point. And it eventually reaped dividends as he got into a tangle against Saini's shooter, rapped on the knee roll dead as a duck for 62 to bring the first 100-run partnership of the series for Australia to a close. 

Smith and Ashwin were at loggerheads once again but the batting maestro came well prepared for a battle of wits. He didn't allow the off-spinner to dictate terms this time around, leaving his crease often to upset the rhythm while keeping a vigilant eye on the slider. He didn't shy away from taking the aerial route either as he breezed his way back to form on the pillars of calculated intent and aggression. Labuschagne grew in confidence at the other end and raked up his fifty with a scenic drive through covers as India veered from the wheels of discipline. Runs came thick and fast as skipper Rahane brought on the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja to halt the ominous partnership. But the diligent duo kept their nose to the grind and escorted Australia to Stumps unscathed as the happier contingent.

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Inside out | Mayank Agarwal’s technique is a mess, and so is Indian team management

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and by the looks of it, the sentence has come to bite the Indian opener Mayank Agarwal who has been shown the exit door before the third Test at the SCG. The development will surely come as a disappointing one for Agarwal, and rightly so, as he was touted as the number one opener for India in Tests before the tour of Australia started. Some experts went a step ahead and rated him as one of the few batsmen who tick all boxes to become an all-format opener for India. So what happened that left Agarwal on the edge before the MCG Test, and twin failures in the Test actually threw him off the clip before the SCG Test. Agarwal has undergone many transitions in his short international and long domestic career. He first burst onto the scenes with swashbuckling stroke playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, but he could never cement his position in the star-studded batting line up, but more due to his inability to convert explosive starts into substantive innings, and more often not than not was guilty of being over attacking. He was smart enough to understand his undoing, and he went old-school ways to conquer his frailties. He spent time with a personal coach to balance his mental game with stroke playing and paid special attention o not throwing his wicket away playing loose shots. The move paid dividends and Agarwal started rising through the ranks in the domestic circuit to stake a claim in the senior team. His batting temperament paved the way for his entry in the India A team where he kept on piling runs to bang the selection door down. Ironically, it was the same tour of Australia two years back when he was brought in as an emergency replacement after the first two Tests when the team management had enough of Murali Vijay and KL Rahul, and now he faces the axe after same two Tests on the tour of Australia. There are two aspects of Mayank Agarwal’s losing form in Tests and it includes the technical changes he brought in his game and how the team management handled his case. First thing first. On the technical aspect of his failures in the first two Tests, Agarwal has been found wanting on the balls that came back to him, and his lack of awareness about off stump while being worried about ball shaping back to him. In two of the four innings, he was been pinned in front of the stumps, and Cummins has gone through his gate once while Starc found him late on a ball that swung back considerably from the line outside the off stump. He also got a jaffa from Hazlewood on the third morning of the Adelaide Test, but he was caught back in the crease, and he clearly appeared late on the ball. Experts and close watchers of the game had pointed out his higher backlift, and wider stance as reasons behind him coming late towards the ball. A short analytical video on the host broadcaster of Cricket Australia- Channel 7 clearly emphasized the change Agarwal has brought in the game from his last series in Australia where he looked like the batsman who could do no wrong while in the four innings he batted on this tour, he has barely looked like the batsman he eas two years ago. For sure, Agarwal would have made the changes in his batting stance and backlift to bring power in his game to excel in the T20 format and specifically in the IPL. He had scored runs in the Test format, and as per the demands of the current era of cricket, he intended to own the T20 format as well. Notably, he had revealed his intentions of making a special effort to make the IPL 2020 count. One can’t blame Agarwal to be ambitious and trying to ace all formats, but his well-intended tactics to excel in the T20, has been the probable reason behind his downfall in the Tests. Now comes the point of how did the team management handle his case and was he taken care of in terms of giving proper backing and letting him know about the advantages and advantages of a changed batting stance. The management of the team is being done by professions and hence there should be no doubt about the latter, but questions must be raised on he has been handled by the team management in Australia. There are enough shreds of evidence available with respect to other players that establish the callousness of the team management in terms of managing players who start losing their shine after making a grand entry on the big stage. Prithvi Shaw was backed to come good against Pink ball in Adelaide but was dropped just after two failures against high-quality bowling. Yes, he was exposed by the quality of the Australian pacers, and should never have been picked, but the fact he got the backing to come good even with a loose technique in the first Test and then being given up just after one Test begs questions that if the team management is cutting down the length of ropes for players, especially the younger ones. Prithvi Shaw, Karun Nair and now Agarwal have faced this problem with the team management while on other hand the likes of KL Rahul has received a far linger rope from the team management and he was also included in the squad even without playing the domestic first-class cricket and earning his place back. Shaw was replaced by Shubman Gill, who by all means looked more assured in his footwork and looked solid in defence but so was Agarwal on the last tour. What if Shubman Gill loses his patience and keeps edging the ball to slip cordon while attempting to drive without moving his front foot like the way he got out in the first innings at the MCG after a good start. If the yardsticks that were followed to drop Agarwal and Shaw would be followed, Gill too will face the axe after few failures and it will leave the team management with a Frankenstein monster with too many contenders for the opener slot but not enough batsmen in a right frame of mind to bat freely and without the feeling of a cut-throat competition where one edge to slip will work as a sword a career built on the back of years of hard work in domestic cricket. What has happened with Agarwal was an inevitable event with Rohit Sharma returning to the team, but the team management needs to remind itself the story of Murali Vijay that how the policy of horse for courses and continuous chopping and changing ruined his game that once an opener who could leave the balls outside off stump for days kept on edging the ball to slip cordon in pursuit of driving balls so far away from his reach, in real uncharacteristic fashion showing nothing but mental brittleness.