- Aug 6, 2021
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The way some people talk, you'd think the Adelaide Oval deck was a minefield with inconsistent bounce and balls exploding off the wicket. All we saw was sideways movement which was exploited by world class bowlers against some very ordinary batting.
The number of shorter forms of the game has ushered in a "see ball hit ball" mentality which has diminished the art of leaving the ball which is my biggest concern when it comes to batting. Forgetting Australia for the moment, the West Indian player McKenzie has all the ingredients of becoming a fine Test batsman. In the 2nd innings, he was cruising on 26, on comes a new bowler Green of whom he wouldn't have seen much, if at all.
Second ball he faces is wide outside the off stump. Rather than just bide his time and let the ball go, assess the pace and bounce, he decides to belt the hell out of it and hits it straight to Labuschagne at short cover. Pitches offering sideways movement is not an excuse for a Test match to end in the first session of day 3.
Eh it’s easy to point towards white ball cricket and blame it. Reality is these guys are inexperienced and a lot of them probably just aren’t up to it, they’re gonna make mistake one way or another.
Head is probably playing the exact same shot, just hits it more often.
There’s also merit to “targeting” the all-rouder/spinner/part time bowler and not allowing them to settle and give the front line quicks a rest. We saw last home Ashes the Aussies were borderline reckless against Leach in Brisbane, but it didn’t allow Root to bowl him and eventually Robinson broke down and the rest of the attack lost its venom. The best way to survive Cummins and Hazlewood is to make them bowl tired as India did last time out here, to do that you probably have to hit Green, Marsh and Lyon out of the attack.