NEWS
Follow UsIndia leaked plenty of runs on Day Two of the Gabba Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. As a result, Australia are in the driver's seat. Travis Head (152) and Steven Smith (101) hit centuries to take Australia to 405/7 at stumps. The duo put on 241 for the fourth wicket at a quick pace to put India on the back foot, after being reduced to 75/3.
India's assistant coach Morne Morkel believes that even though the pacers bowled their hearts out, they leaked runs with the softer ball, especially between overs 50 and 80, which gave Australia the upper hand.
“He is in pretty good form, playing back-to-back innings, we can only give a lot of credit," Morkel said of Head at the end of Day Two.
"For us with the ball, if you look at it from overs 50 to 80, it is where we sort of fall short, leaking a little bit, so that is one area we need to get better at. Steve Smith, we know, is a guy that can bat back and score runs, and they put a partnership and put us under pressure with a softer ball.”
Speaking about the performances of his bowlers, Morkel noted, “Akash [Deep] did well, bowled his heart out, same for [Mohammed] Siraj, he cramped early on in the day, so for him to still run in today and bowl, was great. [Jasprit] Bumrah is the number one bowler in the world, and you need somebody to back him up, but honestly, I can’t fault the effort of the other seamers.”
Ravindra Jadeja, the sole spinner for India in this match, bowled 16 wicketless overs, but Morkel has backed the veteran all-rounder to "work it out."
“Jaddu, coming into this match, didn’t have a lot of game time, but he is also a guy who has taken a lot of Test wickets," Morkel said when asked about the logic of picking Jadeja.
"We wanted to bring in the left-arm option, he is also a guy, who can offer us a lot with the bat. Unfortunately, today wasn’t his day. He is a world-class player, and he will work it out.”
Head brought up his second century of the series in as many matches, in his typical counterattacking fashion, after initially biding time. Morkel revealed that the plan to him was to bowl a lot over the wicket because in the previous games, he had played the bowlers well from around the wicket. “Our plan for Travis in this game was to bowl over the wicket and bowl straight. He had handled our around-the-stump plan well in earlier games,” said Morkel.
“This surface also takes some time to get used to bowling on. You don’t want to be too short or too floaty. Good-length balls were going over the stumps."
On a rain-curtailed Day One, India opted to bowl first in Brisbane, and Morkel says that it was to make the best of the overcast conditions but concedes that it did not work out as planned.
“Rain was forecast for a couple of days. We thought if we got the ball in the right areas, we could take a few wickets. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way," he said.
The five-match series is level at 1-1. A win for India will keep them alive for a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's next year, while a loss will make that difficult.
