Aussies lack spine and pride

Australia down 02 in the ongoing fourmatch series cannot now conquer the ldquofinal frontierrdquo a term Steve Waugh coined in 2001 to signify his countryrsquos abiding passion for vanquishing India in India But Pat Cumminsrsquo men can still stave off the ignominy of being the weakest team from Down Under to visit IndiaEven this seems difficult to achieve given his teamrsquos supine performance It seems the Australians are facing a mental meltdown which they did not experience even in their 40 whitewash during the 2013 tour of IndiaOn that tour they crossed the 300run mark twice totalled over 200 in all but two innings and did not seem like rabbits caught in the headlights The current Australian team as of now exudes little hope of lasting five days in the two remaining Tests let alone winning themThe Australians famously practised on scuffedup pitches to learn mastering darting balls The demons were in their minds not so much in the Test wickets evident from Indian pacers Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj taking eight of the 40 Australian wickets that have fallen thus farCaptain Cummins by contrast is the only Australian quickie to be among the wicketsmdashthat too just three Sure Mitchell Starc and John Hazlewood were unavailable because of injuries Still did it make sense for Australia to play the second Test with three spinners and a lone fast bowlerSlow Indian wickets make speedsters less fearsomemdashbut not ineffective On the first Australian tour of India in 19561957 if legspinner Richie Benaud had a rich harvest of wickets so did fast bowling great Ray Lindwall who took seven wickets in the second innings of the first Test that India lost by an innings On their second tour in 195960 Benaud combined with quickie Allan Davidson to enable Australia to wrap up the threeTest series 21Never a pushover at home the one Test India won was largely due to offspinner Jasubhai Patelrsquos 9 for 69 in the first innings and a fivefor in the second India drew the next series at home 11 with B S Chandrasekhar and Bapu Nadkarni weaving a web of spin around the Aussies But this did not mean Australia imitated Indiamdashit deployed a battery of fast bowlers with one or two excellent at times mediocre spinners to give their attack the lethal edgeFor instance in the fivematch 196970 series that Australia won 31 Graham McKenzie and Alan Connolly played a role no less crucial than spinners John Gleeson and Ashley Mallet who took 28 wickets on the tour Their starstudded battling lineupmdashBill Lawry Keith Stackpole Ian Chappell Doug Walters Ian Redpath and Paul Sheahanmdashkept at bay the spinning trio of E A S Prasanna Bishan Singh Bedi and S VenakataraghavanAlso Read Cool it conquer itThe 196970 series victory was Australiarsquos last on Indian soil until 2004 Between these two victories India always triumphed Yet in none of those series did Australia seem as lacklustre as its current team There was always the thrill of watching a Glen McGrath a Jason Gillespie a Damien Fleming operate with the shining cherrymdashand spinning great Shane Warne There was always a Michael Kasprowicz to spring a surprise It was sublime joy to watch the Waugh brothers Damien Martyn Dean Jones Ricky Ponting and Michael Clark batmdashor be awed by the brutal hitting say of Matthew Hayden and Adam GilchristCumminsrsquo team should draw inspiration from the 197980 Australian team which did not comprise their top players who had been lured to play in media tycoon Kerry Packerrsquos ldquocircus cricketrdquo Yet their fast bowling reserve was deep enough to produce Rodney Hogg and Geoff Dymockmdashand a spinner like Bruce Yardley Emerging batsmen like Allan Border Kim Hughes Dav Whatmore and Andrew Hilditch saved their team humiliation going down just 02 in a sixmatch seriesA close look at the 200405 series shows what it takes an overseas team to win in India Australia in the first innings of the first Test was propelled by Clarkrsquos stylish 151 and Adam Gilchristrsquos blistering 104 in 109 balls to 449 India could reach only 246 with McGrath Gillespie and Kasprowicz together taking eight wickets and Warne two In the second knock Australia mustered 228 setting a victory target of 447 for India which managed just 239 runs Aussie pacers accounted for seven Indian wicketsThe second Test was a draw The third Test at Nagpur was played on a greentop allegedly prepared at the behest of Vidarbha Cricket Association President Shashank Manohar who wanted to spite Jagmohan Dalmiya then Cricket Boardrsquos President Australia expectedly won with their fast bowlers trumping the Indians Even a tailormade spinning track in the fourth Test could have seen Australia winmdashthey fell short of victory by only 13 runsPerhaps Australiarsquos deplorable performance reflects a bigger malaisemdashT20 cricket robbing batsmen of their skills to build their innings by eschewing risky strokes T20 may have also depleted the Australian reserve of fast bowlers In the end though Cummins has been let down more by his batsmen than the bowlersmdashand now even he will be missing from the Third TestThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper