New Delhi: Australia chief coach Andrew McDonald made no bones about his team’s capitulation in the second innings of the second Test here, saying they “failed the examination” of India.
Australia, who seemed to be shaping up well for the challenge with 61 for one at stumps on day 2, lost nine second-innings wickets for just 48 runs to be all out for 113. India then reached the winning target of 115 for the loss of four wickets to take a 2-0 lead and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“Our methods are going to be critiqued, and rightfully so,” McDonald was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press on Monday.
“At the end of day two, if you said our preparation was good (with Australia on 61/1), you’d probably have a different slant on it, but within an hour (on day 3) then people start to critique what happened in the past…
“And day three, as well as we could have been and we failed under the examination of India,” added McDonald, who replaced Justin Langer as head coach after Australia’s 4-0 win in the Ashes.
The coach said that as far as he understood, the preparatory camp in Bengaluru on turning tracks had provided adequate preparation for the spin test.
“I still wouldn’t have changed what we did leading in, there’s no doubt about that,” McDonald said on Monday.
“I think they (squad) had really good preparation in Bangalore, so there’s not any excuses,” added the coach.
He also said that some players diverted from their time-tested game plan, which resulted in the second humiliating defeat.
“There were some people who went clearly away from the game plan that made them successful over a period of time and that’s for us to own as a collective. We’ve got to be better than that, that’s the bottom line, we’ve got to own it and we are not here to shy away from the fact that wasn’t good enough.”
The third Test in Indore from March 1, could see Australia usher in major changes in the side, especially with pace bowler Mitchell Starc and all-rounder Cameron Green expected to be fit after missing the first two games.
PTI
