India beat the Australians by an innings and 132 runs in Nagpur, followed by a six-wicket victory in Delhi, to take an unassailable 2–0 lead in the four-match series.
Clarke believes Australia’s biggest mistake was not playing a tour match before the four-Test series which began on 9 February.
Instead, Pat Cummins he opted to simulate Indian conditions at home before making a short camp near Bengaluru ahead of the series opening in Nagpur.
“I’m not surprised by what I’m seeing because we didn’t have a game on the tour. Big, big, big mistake. There should have been at least one game over there to get used to the conditions,” Clarke said on Monday’s Big Sports Breakfast.
The inability of the Australian batsmen to play to high quality spin was widely exposed in the first two Tests.
In Delhi, they tried to get out of trouble, but that ruse failed miserably. Aside from that, another major mistake, according to Clarke, was not playing Travis Head in the series opener.
The left-hander top-scored for Australia in the second innings off 43 from 46 balls before his side collapsed to 113 all out. It was also his first time opening in Tests.
“First Test selection, big, big mistake. Second Test, boys sweeping, we’ve seen enough of that in the first Test match. It’s not the right conditions to sweep when you start your innings. And they’ll never be the right conditions to reverse the spin versus the spin in the top of your inning,” Clarke said.
Mid side dropped to sweep or reverse sweep on a low rebound trail.
“It doesn’t matter how many support staff are around, you play for Australia. Surely as a batsman playing at the top level, you weigh the risk versus the reward.
“As opposed to spin bowling on a course like that, you’d say my ‘swimming between the flags’ is playing forehand, hitting with spin.
“Let’s stick to those two theories. Straight club…I’m going to play every single ball with spin,” Clarke said.
He also added that Australia should learn from India how to bat in conditions conducive to spin.
“It’s like we’re not watching India beat,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you look at that example and go, ‘OK, these guys know the conditions so well, and that’s how they’re playing.’ Why would we try to do anything different when they were this good?
“The game was there for us to win if we made 200…and we were 1-60,” he said of the dramatic batting slump as Australia lost nine wickets for 52 runs.
India needed to chase 115 and did so with six wickets in hand. Clarke also questioned Pat Cummins’ field placings on Sunday.
“I’m not sure what happened with our tactics. We only had 100 runs on the board.
“At one point, Patty Cummins had four dudes on edge. It’s 2 1/2 days until the test match. You’re either beating India by under a hundred or you’re losing: one or the other.
“Whether you lose in 20 overs, or lose in two days, that’s irrelevant. Then the defenders get up, bat-pad out side, bat-pad leg side. If the ball spins, if the ball bounces, if the ball hits the ground , if you make an error in judgment, you are dating.
“That’s what Australia had to do with the ball. I know it’s only a small lead, but we still had to try and win the game, and we had half back, half back, deep toe, deep square leg What was I looking at?”
(With agency input)
