How Australia plan to conquer India, documentary to reveal strategies
How the Australian cricket team plans to conquer India during its much-awaited tour of the country, once termed the “Everest” by former coach Justin Langer and “final frontier” by the great Steve Waugh.
The latest behind-the-scenes documentary — Amazon Originals The Test season two — promises to provide more than a peek into the strategies the visitors will employ to break its 19-year losing streak in India.
Test captain Pat Cummins recalled the 2004 triumph in India under Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, saying its the benchmark his men aim to reach in February-March.
“They won in India, they won in England,” Cummins says in The Test, also referring to Australias five-Test Ashes tour of the UK, which follows the India assignment. “That Test team (class of 2004), no matter where they (went) in the world, they could adapt. Thats the gold standard. Thats what you aspire to.” The documentary, which premieres on Prime Video this week, charts the success and failure of Cummins team from the time of his appointment as skipper to last summers Ashes campaign, through to their subsequent tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The show also provides insights into the players that make up the current team.
“In Australia, you keep the field in with the new ball, try and make the most of it,” Cummins reveals.
“In the subcontinent, its the opposite. The new ball does nothing, so you put the field out to stop the ball just pinging off the bat and then you hope it starts reversing.
“Then you sense an opportunity, and thats when you go voom.” Besides Pakistan, the documentary also touches upon the Australian teams tour of Sri Lanka in 2016. Veteran opener Usman Khawaja went back to the day Australia started strongly with the ball in the opening Test at Pallekele before being foxed by the home teams spinners to suffer a humiliating 0-3 series defeat.
“I thought we had the perfect game plan for the first Test and we probably should have won it,” Khawaja reflects in The Test.
“The process and everything we were doing was perfect.
“But then when we lost that (first) game, we started second-guessing ourselves and we had three different plans for three different games.
“And I think weve got to be really strong in our own belief to go with the plan that we have the first time is most likely the right plan.” Senior fast bowler Josh Hazlewood feels the inability to acknowledge that different challenges require changed approaches is a reason for past failings.
“Just not adapting quick enough to the conditions,” Hazlewood says about Australias regular struggles on subcontinent pitches.
“Sort of like this is the way I play, and this is how Im going to play, and it just doesnt work in Sri Lanka.” Key men like David Warner and Cameron Green also speak their mind in the The Test. Steve Smith, who was captain prior to Langers appointment in the aftermath of the ball-tampering episode in South Africa in 2018, says, “He left the team in a better place than when he started.” All-rounder Mitchell Marsh says, “Players taking ownership was one of biggest steps weve taken in the last six years.
“Whether were any good time will tell.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
