Former Australian skipper Aaron Finch said that the Australians need a mindset shift against spin bowling, and they failed to show intent against Indian spinners during their ICC Cricket World Cup match at
Chennai.
The spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravichandran Ashwin made merry in Chepauk’s spin-friendly conditions, bundling out Aussies for 199 on Sunday. Despite being 2/3 at one point, knocks from KL Rahul (97*) and Virat Kohli (85) helped India chase down the target of 200 to clinch a six-wicket win. Talking about the loss, Finch said that Indian spinners outbowled Australia’s, and conditions played a big role.
“In the end, it came down to one thing – India’s spinners outbowled Australia’s. It was a fantastic game, much lower-scoring than we expected, and the conditions played a big part,” he said in his exclusive column, as quoted by the ICC. Finch said that he spoke to Indian head coach Rahul Dravid before the game, and he did not expect any dew and was surprised when it came down. “I spoke to Rahul Dravid before the game, and he didn’t expect there to be any dew. He was really surprised when it came down and said that India would have batted first as well,” said Finch. The former skipper lauded spinners Jadeja, Kuldeep, and Ashwin for being so accurate and highly skilled. Finch pointed out that though Australia had plans to rotate strike well against them, they still showed a lack of aggression against spin. “You cannot allow Jadeja, Kuldeep, and Ashwin to bowl how they want to bowl on a surface like that. They’re so accurate and so highly skilled; Jadeja has done it to Australia so many times now.” “Part of it comes down to how India bowled, but we also need to look at the way that Australia batted. There was a clear plan among the group to be proactive, to try to limit dot balls and rotate strikes against what they knew would be a world-class group of spinners.”
