New Delhi: The stage is set for a thrilling battle between Australia and India in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting Friday, November 22. The opening Test will be played at the Optus Stadium in Perth, a venue that is renowned for producing fast and bouncy pitches. For Indian batters, it will be a trial by fire against a lethal Aussie pace bowling attack comprising Pat Cummins, Mitchell Star and Josh Hazlewood.
The Australian fast-bowling trio has picked up a combined 900 Test wickets – a stat enough to instil fear into the minds of the opposition’s batters. That’s why it’s imperative for the Indian batting unit to come up with a plan to counter the big threat.
With Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill likely to miss the opening Test due to different reasons, India will bank on the experience of Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and the exuberance of Yashasvi Jaiswal. But the fact that neither Kohli nor Rahul is among the runs and Jaiswal is touring Australia for the first time, the job of facing the menacing pace attack becomes even more challenging.
But it takes one good innings to return to form and sometimes watching a recap of a good innings and learning from it can also do wonders for confidence and self-belief.
So, it would be wise for the current Indian batting lineup to revisit Sachin Tendulkar’s masterful century at the WACA in 1992 to learn to counter the extra pace and bounce of Perth.
Learnings from Sachin’s Perth Test ton that can help the likes of Jaiswal, Pant and even Kohli
Indian batters, unsurprisingly, struggled to cope with the pace and bounce of the WACA track during an intra-squad game. While most of the batters got out nicking behind the wicket, some even got injured. The current crop of batters might benefit from watching Tendulkar’s superb century on a wicket that was faster than ever at the frightening WACA fortress, also a tomb for the sub-continent batters.
The 19-year-old Tendulkar cracked the code of tackling the extra pace and bounce of the WACA pitch against a deadly fast bowling attack.
As seasoned batters fell like a pack of cards, Tendulkar stood strong and scored one of the best hundreds on Australian soil. While Tendulkar had already scored two centuries in his teens, it was this knock that established him as a generational talent in world cricket.
Enjoy 18 Yr Old Sachin’s 114 vs Australia on the bounciest Perth Pitch against Mcdermott & Hughes while the entire team is crumbling around him. No other batsman even made 50.pic.twitter.com/GYJfvkZpTX
— Vishwamitra (@Vishwamitra24) September 4, 2023
As Indian batters get ready to face the acid Test, let’s recount what Sachin said about this tremendous knock and how he adapted to the lively Perth track.
“It was a quick wicket and for the first time since my debut I was going in at number four in a Test. I relished the opportunity from the outset and hit sixteen boundaries in my 114. By that stage of the tour, I had mastered a back-foot punch. While most batsmen favoured the cut shot at Perth because of the extra bounce, I used the back-foot punch at every opportunity and because I was able to do so against good-length balls, it was making the bowlers’ job that much more difficult”, he said in Playing it My Way, Sachin’s autobiography co-authored by Boria Majumdar.
Sachin has always been a great thinker. Despite his tender age, he was wise enough to assess the pitch and adjust accordingly. His move to use the back-foot punch instead of the cut shot on a bouncy WACA track is an example of his cricketing acumen.
The genius of Sachin Tendulkar
Not only did he successfully negate the threat of the top-class bowling attack but also created an opportunity to score runs on a defensive shot. Every time, Tendulkar stood up on his toes and hit the ball in the gap, he would fetch at least a couple of runs and when he timed it sweetly, he would get a boundary.
It was only the genius of Tendulkar who completely took the good length and back of good length ball out of the equation – the two key weapons of a pacer on the pacey Perth pitch.
Three years ago, Ajinkya Rahane, who is currently out-of-favour, watched Sachin Tendulkar’s 116-run knock at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 1999 to take learnings from the innings before the Boxing Day Test. He applied what he learnt from watching the masterful knock and went on to score 112 runs in the second Test at the MCG.
Jaiswal, Pant, Kohli and Rahul should do the same and see Tendulkar’s 114 ahead of the opening Test at the Optus Stadium.
Australia vs India, Border-Gavaskar Trophy: As Indian batters get ready to face the acid Test at the Optus Stadium, let’s recount how Sachin Tendulkar turned the tables on the Australian bowlers on a lively Perth track more than three decades ago. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
