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India Down Under: Where bowlers called the shots

January 20 2021 by Deepu Narayanan
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With 21 wickets in the series, Pat Cummins showed exactly why he was the current best
Test bowler in the world
With 21 wickets in the series, Pat Cummins showed exactly why he was the current best
Test bowler in the world
Pat Cummins. Josh Hazlewood. Mitchell Starc. Nathan Lyon.

Jasprit Bumrah. Mohammed Shami. Umesh Yadav. R Ashwin.

The two bowling attacks lined up against each other ahead of the first Test in Adelaide
promised to be a showdown of two of the finest contemporary bowling attacks. While it did
more than live up to the expectation, the personnel had undergone a complete change for
the visitors by the time touring party reached Gabba.

Despite the series featuring some of the finest modern-day batsmen, the tracks laid out
offered assistance for bowlers in three of the fours Test, except for the typically flat wicket in
Sydney, which made the going slightly easy for the batsmen. In the 27 series played in
Australia this century (3+ Tests), it was the first instance of both teams averaging under 30.
It was a series where bowlers called the shots and batsmen had to grind out every run
possible.

Batting comparison

Team Inngs Runs Avg SR 100s/50s

Australia 77 1914 28.14 48.56 2/9
India 75 1816 28.82 43.89 1/12
Smith kept quiet, for most part

One of the big challenges for Indian bowlers was to restrict Steve Smith who has had a
terrific record against India coming to the series. Smith did have a quiet home summer by his
standards last time around against Pakistan and New Zealand, but he looked to be in
ominous touch coming into the series after starting off this home summer with two blistering
ODI hundreds in Sydney.

Indian bowled a wicket-to-wicket line with ring fielders on the leg side cutting down Smith's
on-side shot play. In the first two Tests, Smith looked tied down considerably by Ashwin and
Bumrah as they persisted with the straighter lines. Ashwin challenged Smith's outside (1st
innings, Adelaide) and inside edge (1st innings, MCG) while Bumrah knocked his leg stump
in the second innings of the MCG Test - it was the first time an off-spinner dismissed him
twice in a home series and first time he was bowled down the leg side in his career.

Smith conceded he let a spinner decide a spinner call the shots for the time in his career. In
a more benign track for the third Test in Sydney, Smith went on the attack against Ashwin
early on in his innings and registered his only three-figure score of the series. Smith fell to
the leg side trap yet again in the fourth Test to debutant Washington Sundar, bringing his
average against off-spin in the series down to 21.50 for four dismissals.

Steve Smith vs India

Season Host Mat Inngs Runs Avg 100s/50s

2012/13 India 2 4 161 40.25 0/1
2014/15 Australia 4 8 769 128.16 4/2
2016/17 India 4 8 499 71.28 3/0
2020/21 Australia 4 8 313 44.71 1/2
The last time he visited Australian shores, Cheteshwar Pujara batted days on end. He was
the rock on which India scripted their maiden series win Down Under two year's ago. He not
only finished the series as the leading run-getter from either sides but faced 209.4 overs
across four Tests which was key in tiring the four-pronged attack of the home team which
played all the four Tests. He frustrated them leaving balls outside off which forced them to
bowl straighter from where he picked off his runs.

Australia persisted with the same four-men attack this time around as well throughout the
four Tests. They learned from the past and did sway away from bowling straight to Pujara,
limiting his run scoring. Cummins was Pujara's bugbear this time around dismissing him five
times, four of which were caught behind taking the outside edge of Pujara's bat.

His average fell from 74.42 in 2018/19 to 33.87 this time but he still made sure he played his
part in wearing the bowlers down as he faced more deliveries than any other player in the
series (928) which in effect ensured the fast bowlers had much less of fuel left in their tanks
when they came to bowl their final spells on fifth days in the last two Tests. He played
important second fiddle in partnerships with Virat Kohli in Adelaide, Shubman Gill in
Brisbane, and Rishabh Pant in Sydney and in Brisbane.

Pujara - last two series in Aus

Season Inngs Runs Avg SR Balls/Dis 100s/50s

2018/19 7 521 74.43 41.41 179.7 3/1
2020/21 8 271 33.88 29.20 116.0 0/3
Smith and Marnus Labuschagne topped the run charts and were followed by four Indians
separated by a gap of just 15 runs - Rishabh Pant (274), Pujara (271), Ajinkya Rahane (268)
and Shubman Gill (259). It was two of India's brightest future batting talents that stood on top
of strike rates - Pant (69.89) and Gill (60.65) which came handy for India on final day of the
tour with the series in line.

A series where bowlers dictated the terms

This series was expected to be a showdown between two of the greatest contemporary
bowling attacks. In 2018/19, India's attack of Bumrah, Shami and Ishant Sharma comfortably
out bowled their Aussies counterparts, in some way helped by the fact the home side's
batting lineup was fragile and inexperienced. Only Travis Head from that batting lineup
survived when this series began, and he didn't last beyond the second Test.
India's injury issues meant none of their six first choice bowlers were available for the series
decider at Gabba and the bowling lineup was the least experienced since their second-ever
Test way back in the 1930s. Despite all odds stacked against them, the Indian seamers
stood par with the Australian counterparts. Discounting the one afternoon in Adelaide when
Australian attack bowled India out for 36, the Indian attack was one notch higher helped by
the fact they had fresher legs as a result of inadvertent selections.

Pacers comparison

Team Overs Wkts Avg ER SR

India 431.5 42 31.59 3.07 61.6
Australia 487.5 49 26.85 2.69 59.7
With hardly anything to separate the two teams in batting and fast bowling stats, where India
got the better of Australia was the manner in which Indian spinners comfortably out bowled
Lyon. In the three Tests he played, Ashwin picked 12 wickets including dismissing Smith
thrice and Marnus Labuschagne twice and also snaring the crucial scalp of David Warner in
the second innings in Sydney when Australia was trying to set the game up for a declaration.

On the other hand, Lyon endured his worst series at home, picking just nine wickets at 55.11
and striking every 124.6 balls. Because of Lyon's inability to dictate terms in the fourth
innings in Sydney and Brisbane - four wickets in 77 overs - India came on top on the final
day in both the Tests.

India didn't allow Lyon to settle down as they attacked him and was even ready playing risky
shots if needed as Rohit Sharma did in first innings in Brisbane. Of the 16 sixes hit by India
in the series, ten were off Lyon's bowling. Pujara, sedate against seamers scoring under a
strike rate of 25, stroked at 44 against Lyon revealing India's larger plot not to let Lyon get on
top of them.

It was a testimony to Indian spinners spinners' success when Lyon swayed away from
bowling his usual line of attack outside off to straighter lines and around the wicket during
the morning session on the final day of the Gabba Test. Never before Lyon was as
comprehensively out bowled by opposition spinners in a home series.

Spinners comparison

Team Overs Wkts Avg ER SR

India 220.5 23 27.00 2.81 57.6
Australia 198 9 59.11 2.68 132.0
It was a series where India's youth put their hands up and triumphed over Australia's
collective experience and better knowledge of the conditions by their tenacity. It was the sort
of miracle born out of a duel that hope pips the odds in.

Key stats from the series

20 - Players used by India in the series, the most by any visiting team in a series and most
by India in a rubber since 1960/61.
1 - This was the first time India came back from 0-1 to clinch a series outside Asia. It was the
fifth instance for them in a Test series, three of them coming against Australia. The last
visiting team to comeback from 0-1 to win a series in Australia was West Indies in 1992/93.

369 - The highest team total in the series, by Australia in the first innings of the Gabba Test.
The last time no team made 400+ in a series in Australia was way back in 1989/90 when
Pakistan toured for a three-Test series.

2 - Australia lost in Melbourne and Brisbane after batting first. Prior to the series and since
2011/12 season, Australia had just lost a solitary Test at home when they batted first. It was
also the first time since 2010 India won an away Test when they bowled first.

Ⓒ Cricbuzz

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