5 reasons for Australian spinners' supremacy in the first Test
In Pune, it was a David versus Goliath battle – the inexperienced Australian spinners versus the quality Indian batting line-up led by Virat Kohli. Batsmen comprising of stalwarts who have played spinners on turning tracks throughout their life and against two spinners who lacked the experience of bowling in these conditions and with limited skills.
However, at the end of the Pune Test, the two Australian spinners had taken 17 wickets, while the Indian batsmen managed to score only 141 runs against them in the two innings.
How did Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe pull off this miraculous task of dominating Indian batsmen on their home turf? We look at the 5 major areas which contributed to their supremacy in this Test match.
#1 Pitch and its assessment
The Pune pitch is traditionally a flat track and domestic games here are famous for high scores. Hence, the curators in pursuit of bringing the spinners in the game made the pitch dry and ensured that the grass was dead. However, things went horribly wrong and the final outcome was a rank turner that offered vicious turn from day one along with sharp bounce.
This pitch made the Australian spinners look more threatening and by bowling in the right areas, O’Keefe and Lyon completely exploited this track.
Credit should also be given to the two Aussie spinners for assessing the pitch effectively. Compared to the Indian spinners, the Australians bowled fuller lengths which resulted in controlled turn and helped in getting outside edges.