Australia team lost due to Cummins’ lack of knowledge on spin-taking pitches: Lawson
Australian cricket great Geoff Lawson has blamed skipper Pat Cummins’ lack of knowledge of spin pitches and inadequate advice from assistant coach Daniel Vettori for the team’s dismal performance in India. India won the first two Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy within three days, with the spin bowling duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja playing a key role. Australia lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs, while India won by six wickets in the second in New Delhi.
Lawson, one of Australia’s most dangerous bowlers in Tests and ODIs in the 1980s, said Cummins had played so few Sheffield Shield matches that the captain did not have much experience in strategizing on a turning pitch. Lawson told ‘Sen Radio’, “Cummins has so little captaincy experience on spin-taking pitches because your captain has played very few matches in the Sheffield Shield and he certainly does not play on spin-taking wickets.” ,
“So where does he learn all the creative and adaptive stuff, he watches a lot of videos and makes decisions. After retaining the Border Gavaskar Trophy, India will look to win the third Test starting March 1 in Indore to seal a place in the World Test Championship final. Lawson said the Australian bowlers had no strategy to break the partnership between India’s lower-order batsmen Axar Patel and Ashwin which helped the hosts gain a psychological edge in the second Test.
Lawson also questioned former New Zealand spinner and current assistant coach Vettori in Australia for not giving any advice to the team’s spinners. He said, “Daniel Vettori is one of the great left-arm bowlers in the world, he should have given advice on how you should bowl and how we should bat against this type of bowling. “He said,” But he could not do all this because when I saw the shots of the dressing room, I thought what advice Vettori gave here, he is a great player of slow bowling, so he should have given the most advice. .
