“You just can’t deflect it and flick it off and say India were too good for us” – Shane Warne on Australia's loss
Legendary spinner Shane Warne has criticized the Australian team for their defeat to an injury-strewn Indian side. He expects the management to heavily come down on some of the more important members of the team.
The Tim Paine-led side went down in the fourth Test by three wickets on Tuesday (January 19), thus losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-2. In an interview with Fox Sports, Shane Warne opined that a “huge fallout” is impending in the Aussie camp.
“I think there’ll be a huge fallout from this. There are not too many times that you lose to the second or third [choice] side. That’s not taking anything away from those Indian guys that played. But [in] their first selection side, there’s probably only two or three players in that side who would play,” Shane Warne, who has picked 708 wickets in 145 Tests, said.
In addition to Virat Kohli flying back to India after the first Test to attend the birth of his first child, India lost six first-team players to injuries. Thus they had to hand maiden Test caps to five young guns, all of whom made the big stage their own.
“People’s spot in the team will come into question” – Shane Warne
Going into the final Test at the Gabba, the combined experience of the four frontline Australian bowlers was 247 matches while that of their Indian counterparts was an unbelievable four. Despite the odds and the niggling injuries, India took all 20 Aussie wickets before romping home with three of their wickets intact.
Many pundits have attributed India’s historic win to their concerted effort and not to the frailties of the hosts. Shane Warne, however, lambasted Australia for not being able to finish games, despite having India on the edge multiple times. He emphasized that their tactics need to come under scrutiny.
“Their tactics will come into question, and they have to. Bowlers will come into question, people’s spot in the team will come into question. It has to. You just can’t deflect it and flick it off and say India were too good for us," Shane Warne said.
“Yes, they were, but Australia had so many chances in this series to bury it and crush India, but they couldn’t do it. There’ll be a big fallout from this,” Shane Warne, who was on commentary duty during the entire two-month tour, added.
Shane Warne was probably alluding to Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari’s gritty sixth-wicket stand in Sydney that helped India eke out a memorable draw. More recently, a 123-run seventh-wicket stand between Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur at the Gabba helped India cut short Australia’s first-innings lead to just 33 runs.
The Tim Paine-led side is scheduled to leave for South Africa on February 24. It will be intriguing to see how their team shapes up.