Ravi Shastri reveals fundamental reason behind Australia's dismal display on India tour

Ravi Shastri, former coach of Indian cricket team, has said Australia's failure to apply mselves and ir lack of trust in ir defence mechanisms have resulted in ir loss of first two Tests in ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy. In Delhi Test, Australian batsmen's tendency to play sweep shots and subsequently get dismissed has drawn harsh criticism from former players and analysts. Shastri said Australian batsmen must trust ir defence in order to spend some time at crease.

“I think application (has let m down) more than anything else; lack of belief in ir own defence. lack of application and lack of discipline was unreal and Australia paid for it big time. If you don‘t trust your defence, you have chance because that’s when you entertain thoughts of breaking free, much quicker than you rmally should. Sometimes you‘ve got to spend some time at crease, but how are you going to spend some time at crease if you don’t trust your defence?" Shastri said. 

"But I didn‘t see one Australian batsman (do that). What surprised me was some of ir most senior players also came out re and looked to do things out of ordinary, something y’re t used to. So I think it‘s patience, it’s an application, it’s discipline and trusting your defence," he added. 

Australia's struggle with spin continues 

Australia got bowled out for just 113 runs in ir second innings of Delhi Test match. Most of ir batsmen got dismissed while attempting to play sweep shot. It seemed Australian team had decided y will only play sweep shots after Usman Khawaja found some success attacking bowlers in first innings of same match. This resulted in Australia getting bowled out for a low score and India chasing down target within two sessions on Day 3 of match.   

third Test match is scheduled to take place in Indore starting March 1. Pat Cummins has been ruled out of third Test and Steve Smith will captain in his absence. Cummins has flown back to Australia due to a family emergency. 

Australia squad for third Test: Steve Smith (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matw Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matt Kuhnemann.

Im: PTI/BCCI