India vs Australia 1st Test: Is it about the Pitch or Axar, Jadeja were better than the Australia Batters?

The
questions
about
the
Nagpur
pitch
were
asked
by
Australian
media
since
they
saw
the
pictures
of
the
pitch
for
the
first
time.
Their
pundits,
journalists
all
have
been
sceptical
about
the
pitch
in
Nagpur.

Social
Media
was
poured
with
many
posts
which
criticized
the
Nagpur
top
and
said
it
was
simply
a
ploy
to
cripple
their
batters.
Amid
all
the
complaints,
they
forgot
even
India
had
to
bat
on
the
same
top.

Indian
Left-Handed
Batters:

Now
fast
forwarding
to
the
2nd
Day
of
the
Test,
Australia
bundled
out
for
177
and
India
were
240/7.
The
match
was
hanging
in
the
balance
and
the
visitors
would
have
been
sniffing
an
all-out.
But
in
came
Axar
Patel,
and
formed
an
outstanding
partnership
with
Ravindra
Jadeja.

Together,
the
pair
added
88
runs
for
the
8th
wicket,
before
Jadeja
was
cleaned
up
b
Todd
Murphy
on
the
3rd
day.
Jadeja
scored
70
off
185
balls,
tackling
the
likes
of
Nathan
Lyon
and
debutant
Todd
Murphy
who
has
picked
up
6
wickets.

Axar
Patel
still
bats
as
he
is
unbeaten
on
61
runs,
without
any
visible
difficulty
to
counter
the
spinners.
And
remember,
Ravindra
Jadeja
and
Axar
Patel
comes
to
bat
and
no.7
and
no.9
respectively.

Australian
Left-Handed
Batters:

Now
coming
to
the
left-handed
batters
of
the
Aussies.
India’s
tactics
to
curb
the
left-handers
of
the
visitors
didn’t
even
require
as
half
of
them
didn’t
even
survive
till
the
spin.
Both
David
Warner
(1)
and
Usman
Khawaja
(1)
departed
early
in
the
innings.
Warner’s
stumps
were
rattled
by
Mohammed
Shami,
while
Khawaja
was
caught
in
the
crease
by
Mohammed
Siraj.

Ravindra
Jadeja,
who
picked
up
a
fifer
in
the
first
innings,
even
only
one
left-handed
batter
was
his
victim
as
Matt
Renshaw,
who
departed
for
a
Golden
duck.

The
only
southpaw
who
batted
reasonably
was
Alex
Carey.
The
wicketkeeper-batter
scored
36
runs
off
33
balls
and
implemented
himself
well.
He
was
cleaned
up
by
Ravichandran
Ashwin.

Aussie
Batters
were
Poor
on
the
Day:

It
was
nothing
but
lack
of
proper
application
by
the
Australian
batters
against
Indian
bowlers
as
a
whole,
and
the
pitch
was
no
Boogeyman.
In
the
same
conditions,
perhaps
worse,
Axar
Patel
and
Ravindra
Jadeja
both
got
fifties,
and
they
are
not
top
six
in
the
batting
lineup.
Hence
it
must
serve
as
a
lesson
to
the
Australian
media
that
howling
and
criticizing
host
countries
may
not
be
the
way
forward,
proper
preparation
must
remain
the
main
focus.

Steve
Smith
also
came
on
to
say
before
the
match
that
the
pitch
was
curated
with
a
purpose
and
it
was
tailor-made
for
the
left-arm
spinners
of
India.
Well,
he
may
be
right,
but
he
needs
to
look
in
the
mirror.
The
pitches
in
Perth
or
Brisbane
don’t
look
as
a
pitch,
it
just
looks
like
Forest
sometimes,
with
the
amount
of
grass
in
those.
And
still,
India
have
gone
on
to
win
the
last
two
Test
series
in
Australia.

Hence,
they
need
to
calm
down.
Hopefully,
they
will
be
at
the
end
of
this
Test
series.