Australia are sticking with the same squad for the second Test in Adelaide that suffered a shock smashing by India in Perth.
With 11 days until the day-night match at Adelaide Oval, there could have been a temptation to shake up the XI that opened the Border-Gavaskar series with a record 295-run humiliation.
But Australia coach Andrew McDonald will give the under-performing batting line-up a chance to redeem themselves after being blown away by India’s fast bowling superstar Jasprit Bumrah.
“The same people in that change room are the same people that will be in Adelaide,” McDonald said.
Although McDonald did leave the door open for white-ball keeper Josh Inglis, who was in the 13-man squad for Perth, to make his Test debut as a batter in the top-six.
Allrounder Mitch Marsh has pulled up sore after bowling the most overs – 17 – he has in a game for three years.
There were already concerns over Marsh’s fitness heading into the Test after hurting his hamstring in the Indian Premier League and coming into camp following time off for parental leave.
Those fears were realised when India batted for a day and a half in the second innings, requiring Marsh to bowl more than Australia would have liked.
The player who bowled when Marsh was spent – Marnus Labuschagne – is the Australian batter most under pressure.
The former No.1-ranked Test batter’s decline continued in Perth after he fell for scores of two and three, unsuccessfully burning a review when he was lbw in each innings.
Labuschagne is averaging just 24 this year and his last century came in July 2023.
McDonald threw his support around the struggling No.3.
“When we’ve seen him at his best he’s shown great intent at the crease,” McDonald said.
“That’s an ongoing discussion and that ebbs and flows in players’ careers, so at the moment he’s in one of those patches and no doubt he’ll be getting critiqued externally.
“But internally we’re really confident that, at his best, he’s the player that we need.
“We’re really confident he can turn that around.”
Debutant Nathan McSweeney received a brutal introduction to Test cricket, out for 10 and a duck, as he was trapped lbw in both innings by Bumrah.
Usually batting at No.3 for South Australia, McSweeney opened in Perth, even taking the first ball of the second innings.
“I don’t think it will be any tougher than that as he goes along the journey,” McDonald said of the 25-year-old’s international initiation.
“Bumrah’s an unbelievable player, so that was a big challenge.”
Australia last won a Border-Gavaskar series in 2014-15, with India holding the trophy since 2017, which has included winning on their past two tours to this country.
The last time Australia recovered from a 1-0 deficit and came back to win a Test series was in the 1997 Ashes in England.
You have to go back to 1968-69 against West Indies when Australia last came from behind to ultimately win a home Test series.
It means the next match shapes as a defining one for the reigning World Test Champions, with McSweeney the only member of the XI in Perth to be aged under 30.
At an average age of 32, Australia are a combined six years older than India, whose 22-year-old opener Yashasvi Jaiswal belted a brilliant 161 at Optus Stadium.
But McDonald insisted Australia would “own” the Perth capitulation.
“There will be a semblance of review around what we have done and what we can learn from it,” he said.
“And we’ve got to own that as coaches as well.
“So we’ll look back at how we prepare.
“We felt like it was good (but) was there anything we missed in that, was there any surprises or challenges and then it becomes an execution challenge for us.”
AUSTRALIA SQUAD FOR SECOND TEST:
Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland.
