India on Saturday handed a crushing defeat to Australia in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur. India won the Test match by innings and 132 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match contest. Indian spinners played a crucial role with the ball to help their side emerge victorious in the match. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin both picked up a five-wicket haul each. 

Former Australian cricketer Stuart Clark has now criticised the Pat Cummins-led side for their poor performance in the first Test match. Clark believes the reason behind Australia's thumping loss was their decision to not play any practice game in India ahead of the first Test. Clark said the Australian team was not well prepared for the match. 

“I think the bit that gets me about it all is - and we talked about it before the series started - were they as well prepared as they could be? And the general consensus, if you talk to anyone on the street, is ‘no, they weren’t,” Clark was quoted as saying on Sky Sports Radio.

“No practice game, no tour match, turn up ... and got dusted in a manner people are pretty disappointed about. Say what you want, they got smoked. India are a pretty good team in their country, but I just don’t think they were prepared well enough," he said.

Clark on Kuhnemann's inclusion for the 2nd Test

Meanwhile, Clark also reacted to the inclusion of Matthew Kuhnemann in the Australian squad for the upcoming second Test match in Delhi. Clark called him a "pretty good bowler" and that he would be hard work for the Indian players because of the variety he possesses. Clark also heaped praise on Todd Murphy, who picked up a seven-wicket haul in the first Test. 

“I’ve watched a little bit of him (Kuhnemann) bowl in domestic cricket. He’s a pretty good bowler, and he would be hard work and he offers a bit of variety. But that means you’ve got to either play three spinners — I’m not sure they’re going to do that — or you’ve got to leave out Nathan Lyon. I’m pretty sure they’re not going to do that," he added.

“Todd Murphy obviously did really well, so you can’t leave him out. I think they’ve painted themselves into a corner where it’s very difficult to change the team. It’s such a corner that they’re almost stuck and unless they get some injury relief — ie. Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green come back — I don’t see how they can make any changes without looking like, A; there’s a massive over-reaction to what happened in the first game, or two; accepting they got it wrong, and I don’t think they want to do either of those," Clark concluded.

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