Calling them ‘clueless’ and bereft of any gameplan, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has slammed the touring Australian side, saying it is ‘probably the weakest team’ to travel to India for a Test series. Speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange, Harbhajan said the Australian teams of the past ‘understood the conditions better than the other teams that toured India’ and hence were a bit more successful. “But… I think this is probably the weakest team. Not in terms of skills, mentally they are very fragile. They are not able to handle pressure the way the Aussies used to. It'll be fair to say this is not the 'Aussie-Aussie' kind of a team that we all used to see or play against,” he said. “This team, particularly if we see now, they are clueless. They don't have any plans.” Australia have lost the opening two Tests of the four-match series without putting up a fight. The visitors lost the first Test in Nagpur by innings and 132 runs, inside three days. And while they were in the game while going into Day 3 of the second Test in New Delhi, Australia were bundled out cheaply once again as they suffered a six-wicket defeat. The result meant India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Harbhajan, one of the stars of the famous series win against Australia in 2001, criticised the strategy adopted by Pat Cummins-led, especially during the second Test, where six of their batsmen were dismissed attempting to play a sweep or reverse sweep. The sweep, he said, was the ‘worst option’ on a pitch like the one in Delhi where the bounce has always been low. “The ball was staying low – again, this isn't a new phenomenon. It’s been happening from the time since the stadium, which is now named after Arun Jaitley ji, was called Kotla. When the ball is keeping low, sweep is the worst option you can apply,” he said. “And out of the 10 wickets, seven fell to sweep shot and one batsman lost his back stump while trying to hit a reverse sweep. So that shows there wasn't any plan and the one they had wasn't right. So this is the way the Australian team is thinking, this is probably the worst I have seen. there is no option or thinking as to what should be done.” Australia arrived in India nearly two weeks before the first Test but instead of playing a practice game, they chose to train away from the public glare in Alur, the outskirts of Bengaluru. Anticipating that spin would play a decisive factor in the series, they also got an ‘Ashwin duplicate’ and had tailor-made practice pitches. Harbhajan wasn’t impressed with the idea, saying that with such actions they ‘hyped up’ the likes of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja among themselves. The all-rounder duo has wreaked havoc in this series and has accounted for 31 wickets so far. “Before the first Test even began, there was so much chaos. They were thinking about what will happen, will the pitches spin, they even got a bowler like Ashwin at nets. But when you bat at nets and you bat in the middle, those are two different things,” Harbhajan said. “So you've hyped up among yourselves about how Ashwin and Jadeja will bowl. So what! No matter how the pitch is, you should know how to manage the game. Know that 200-250 will be a good score. At least try to get that somehow. I couldn't see any of this planning.” He added that the Australians should have been better prepared for these conditions to at least put up a fight. “They knew these conditions would be challenging for any batter - the ball will spin from the first ball. It's not something that's started to happen now; it's been happening for the last 8-10 years. In 2012-13 they lost on similar wickets. They were clueless even at that point in time but they fought better than this. But this team, I don't see anyone standing up and taking those challenges and trying to do something different than what others are doing.”
