Former Indian cricket team skipper Dilip Vengsarkar was extremely critical of the Australian batsmen after the visitors were beaten comprehensively in the second match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Sunday. The first session of Day 3 saw Australia lose eight wickets for just 80 runs with most of them gifting their wickets while playing the sweep shot. The sweep has been a preferred shot for foreign batsmen on Indian soil as it allows them to navigate the spinners better. However, Vengsarkar believes that the margin of error is too low and the Aussies lacked the proper skill set.
"The unfortunate part is, batting against spinners is an art, and Australians are not used to playing good quality spin. Sweep could be an important part of your game plan but also the margin of error is very small," Vengsarkar told PTI.
"It is tough to have control over sweep, like the hook shot off pacers. Shockingly the foot work has been poor. The skill level is not there. I don't see a lot of them stepping out and driving.”
"They want to reverse sweep these days. Sometimes you have to grind for runs, that aspect of batting you don't see that much. DRS have also made it tougher for the batters. They are given out lbw even with a full stride on. Everyone wants to play with the ball all the time (and not use the pad)," he said.
India defeated Australia by six wickets to take a 2-0 lead in the four-match Test series with both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin impressing with their brand of spin bowling.