It doesn’t matter which order you put them in, Australia’s batting is frail right now, and their home conditions are not helping
Alex Malcolm22-Nov-2024Australia spent six months talking about the batting order, with Steven Smith central to the discussion.The chorus was almost unanimous. Smith had to get back to No. 4. It was his rightful spot. A spot where he has been one of Australia’s best ever. Smith said Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne “hated” him opening despite the fact he requested to do it citing a sense of “security” when he batted behind them.Cameron Green’s injury paved the way. Australia picked a makeshift opener in Smith’s place in Nathan McSweeney, who was deemed the next best batter available.Related
Captain Bumrah makes his own rules to spark India to life
Batting issues loom over Australia with big five in focus
For their legacy, Australia can't let this Border-Gavaskar series slip away
Manjrekar blames 'poor supply of technology' after Rahul falls to debatable DRS decision
Stats – India's woeful year with the bat continues in Perth
And just one day into Australia’s back to the future batting adventure, Jasprit Bumrah blew that preferred top-order apart with a near unplayable spell of fast bowling on a near unplayable surface.It doesn’t matter which order you put them in. Australia’s batting is frail right now. It has been for a while. Their home conditions are not helping. Top-order batting in Australia has rarely, if ever, been harder than it is right now, as India can also attest to after a day of carnage at Perth Stadium where 17 wickets fell, only three batters reached 20 and no-one passed 41.And while Australia’s fast bowlers are loving life, having toiled on some very flat surfaces earlier in their careers, Australia’s team is discovering, like India discovered against New Zealand at home just recently, the more extreme the batting conditions become the more chances visiting sides have.Australia won four of their five home Tests last summer, but they lost one of them to West Indies and gave Pakistan a chance in two others. In similarly challenging conditions in New Zealand, they were fortunate to escape with a 2-0 victory. Australia’s batters are not separating themselves from their opponents in the same conditions.India were rolled for 150 and it looks above par right now. Australia are under enormous pressure against them on home soil once more, having entered as the far more settled group.Jasprit Bumrah was unplayable with the new ball•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaFor Smith, it’s torture. Australia’s greatest player of this generation is staring his cricketing mortality square in the face.He walked in as the security blanket at No. 4, although it’s hard to know how happy Khawaja felt about it as they crossed at the gate, and had his defence breached first ball.That Australia were 19 for 2 in the seventh over was not overly alarming given the conditions. McSweeney’s debut innings had been challenging. Those critical of his elevation to open in this Test with just two first-class innings’ worth of experience in the role might feel justified by his 13-ball 10. But he was undone by some exceptional bowling from Bumrah. He was beaten by a delivery that angled in and zipped away. He was then trapped lbw by a delivery that pitched wider and veered back into his front pad like a missile, with Bumrah’s flawless seam position looking exactly the same for both deliveries.Smith might have entered in the same over had Labuschagne been held by Virat Kohli. Bumrah went wide of the crease again and angled in before taking it away. Labuschagne shuffled across the crease, twisted chest on and nicked it knee high to second slip. Kohli had it and then fumbled it while his team-mates celebrated around him.Khawaja wasn’t so lucky, having looked as comfortable and assured as any Australian batter. From around the wicket, Bumrah first beat him with a beauty before catching the edge with a similar back-of-a-length ball that angled in and straightened. Khawaja was squared up completely as he edged it to Kohli, who held this chance easily.In walked Smith, but he couldn’t survive his first ball. Another inswinging missile thundered into his pads as Smith shuffled across and fell to the off side. For one of the rare times in his career, he did not review.It was a cracking delivery, in the midst of a truly extraordinary spell of bowling from a masterful fast bowler at the peak of his powers. First-ball ducks can happen to any player. Smith can be forgiven in that context. His line of credit extends beyond any player in this Australian team. But it is worth noting it was his third straight Test dismissal lbw and his fourth in his last five first-class innings, if you include his lone Sheffield Shield outing this summer. Two of those have come not offering a shot. Two others have looked identical – shuffling back and across, losing his bearings to off stump, getting beaten on the inside. He also fell in the same fashion in the first over at the Gabba when opening for just the third time in his career.Smith has spent a decade inviting the world’s greatest bowlers to hit his front pad in line with the stumps and for most of that decade he has plundered runs at a record rate. Now he’s missing them with alarming regularity.Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh could not produce counter-attacking heroics to rescue Australia, as they have done so often in recent times. It is of little surprise given neither had played in over a month due to the birth of their respective children.Marnus Labuschagne’s 2 off 52 balls was stubborn but not game-changing•Associated PressLabuschagne’s innings was torturous. He made 2 off 51 balls before he too was pinned lbw by Mohammed Siraj. He has gone nearly two years without a Test century in Australia and is averaging 15 from his last nine Test innings, which includes a 90 in his previous Test match.Mitchell Starc, who had bowled superbly earlier in the day, was adamant post play that the pitch was not that difficult to bat on, saying the bowlers were allowed to bowl good balls. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who top-scored for the day with 41 on Test debut, said the surface had more life in it than the MCG pitch he played on for India A just a fortnight ago, where scores were marginally better.Starc is right in the sense that Bumrah’s exceptionalism is worthy of acknowledgement. Sometimes the greats are just too good on the day.But when it comes as part of a downward trend, when the likes of Aamer Jamal, Shamar Joseph, and Matt Henry have all scythed through the same line-up in recent times, then it can’t just be written off as one special spell from one special bowler.Australia’s current population has ticked past 27 million this year and none of them could have handled Bumrah’s spell. The concerning part for Australia is that the best of them aren’t handling many spells at present on home turf.
