- Australian police whipping Greg Blewett
- Australia faces uphill battle in Perth test
- Need to make quick progress in India’s batting
Former Test star Greg Blewett has called Australia’s body language “unacceptable” but coach Andrew McDonald disagrees.
Australia faces an uphill battle to emerge victorious in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar series in Perth after India absolutely dominated the second day.
The visitors will resume play on day three at 0-172 in their second innings, an overall lead of 218 after Australia were bowled out for 104.
Yashasvi Jaiswal (90th) and KL Rahul (62nd) survived two full sessions on Saturday, with Australia looking listless on the field at times.
“That hour before tea I thought it looked like they were going through the motions, it’s really unacceptable,” Blewett said during commentary on the Seven Network.
“It’s the second day of an important series, Australia-India.”
Former Australian Test player Greg Blewett (pictured) lashed out at the home team after India dominated the second day of the Test.
Australia faces an uphill battle to emerge victorious in the opening Test of the series.
McDonald was direct when asked if he agreed with Blewett’s assessment.
“I didn’t notice the body language at all,” he said.
Australia still has a chance for an unlikely victory given there are three more days left.
But unless they can make quick inroads into India’s batting line-up on Sunday, the contest will quickly slip away from them.
There are still 23 overs until the new ball arrives, but McDonald is not worried about the increasing workloads of the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.
‘There are no real worries. “I think the shortened first innings (when India were bowled out for 150 in 49.4 overs) alleviated a lot of that,” he said.
“There will be management in that second new dance, making sure we have the energy for it.”
‘That’s our opportunity, our entry point into the game. We have some work to do before then.
The visitors will resume play on day three at 0-172 in their second innings, an overall lead of 218 after Australia were bowled out for 104.
Australia needs to make quick progress in India’s batting line-up on Sunday
Australian coach Andrew McDonald says he hasn’t noticed any problems with body language
‘If we can get some (wickets) into that second new ball, that will give us a chance. So that’s where our minds are at this stage.”
The terrain seemed almost unplayable on the first day before flattening out considerably on the second day.
This came as a surprise to the Australians, as Starc predicted after the first day that the course would continue to deteriorate.
“The surface looked considerably drier (the second day), and it dried pretty quickly,” McDonald said.
‘We thought there might have been a bit more there.
‘So yeah, I guess if you want to say we were a little surprised (that would be correct).
‘There wasn’t as much movement or wobble of the seam, and I think the players presented the seam in a similar way to how they did on the first day.
“So I think the conditions may have had something to say about that.”
The unbeaten stand of 172 runs between Rahul and Jaiswal is India’s second-highest opening stand in Australia.
The record is 191 set by Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth in Sydney in 1986, and that mark could fall early on the third day.