WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE BORDER-GAVASKAR TROPHY 2013?
Indian team has given the Aussies a taste of their own medicine, whitewashing them 4-0 on home soil comfortably. But even then, the Australians had some positives to take from the defeats, and people like Steven Smith, Maxwell all have learnt what test cricket is, and how it can be in the subcontinent and furthermore.
1.INDIAN WICKETS ARE MAINLY TURNING TRACKS:-
That’s the first important point to be noted. One would have come to know from the England tour of India series that Indian pitches are spinning tracks by the way we saw Swann, Panesar, Ashwin and Jadeja excel and the fast bowlers are getting very helpless and just cannot extract bounce and pace like they do in South African and Australian wickets.
2.WEAKNESS EXPOSED:-
Both teams were weak against spin bowling on day 2. But for the larger part of the tour, the Australians failed to read the spin of Jadeja and Ashwin, like Indians struggled against the pace and bounce of Hilfenhaus and Siddle down under. Also, most of the pitches behaved badly towards the batsmen, which can be very dangerous. For example, Hughes got out to a short ball from Jadeja in Chennai, imagine a short ball from a spinner. And also Shane Watson got to a ball from Ashwin which kept too low but also Watson played down the wrong line which saw his timber disturbed. Jadeja and Ashwin ran through the Australian line up at will and also got assistance from the fast bowlers, not to be forgotten. Australians have to be very careful not only on sub-continent tracks but also whenever they come across spinning wickets, they should remember this series.
Now, what India and Australia have to look down to.
3.TEAM INDIA:-
Well and truly, India have dominated this series and the inexperienced test likes of Vijay, Dhawan, Jadeja and a few more have very much impressed. But, this was only the home series, turning tracks. When India go abroad, They have to face bouncing, swinging, pace tracks etc., I think Jadeja and Ashwin would be of ineffective use during India’s tour of South Africa, the world number 1 at the moment. And India would be eager to call back experienced Gambhir and Sehwag. We also do not know when certain players will get injured, and who will not. India atleast have a long time to think of the test series, but before that they have the IPL, Champions League , Champions Trophy etc.,. All these tournaments have to be focussed. But still i see a bright future for Indian cricketing prospects.
4.TEAM AUSTRALIA:-
According to their fans, catastrophic, embarrassing, a nightmare. These were just some of the words used to describe their 4-0 drubbing in India. The Ashes series will be in July, and Michael Clarke and Mickey Arthur have to regroup Australia in order to avoid their 3rd successive Ashes loss. The current Aussie team is clearly in disarray. Australia also do not have the experience of Mike Hussey and Ricky Ponting. Australia have Glenn Maxwell and Steven Smith, both experienced in T20 but not that much in Test Cricket. England wickets are swinging wickets and they hardly have 3-4 months for the Ashes. So the Aussies would look to train Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and James Pattinson for various kinds of swing bowling. Their batting looks rather OK, but such performance will only get another drubbing in England. Australia will have to do immense training or rather smart training and practice in order to avoid defeat in the hands of their rivals.