Harbhajan Singh has criticized Team India’s bowling on Day 1 of the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. He said that the Indian seamers didn’t make the Australian batters play enough deliveries despite getting good seam movement under the lights as well. However, India were bowled out for 180 in their first innings after opting to bat first in Adelaide on Friday, December 6. Australia also ended the day at 86/1 in their first innings, trailing the visitors by 94 runs but with nine wickets in hand as well.
During a discussion on Star Sports, Harbhajan Singh said, “India didn’t make them play the ball, the mistake Australia made at the start. They too didn’t make the batters play the ball. India lost wickets in a cluster because they had to consistently play balls. They got out to extra bounce. I feel India could have bowled much better than this. Too many balls were bowled at the sixth or seventh stump. They didn’t make them play the driving-length balls at all. Three slips have been placed but you gain from that only when you bowl full and at the stumps. It was beyond my understanding that you didn’t make them play balls when there was so much seam movement under the lights,” Harbhajan added.
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In the same discussion, Harbhajan Singh also stated whether Ravichandran Ashwin could play a crucial role for India on Day 2.
“They will have to look towards him for sure. They shouldn’t take too long to make changes. I feel short spells of four overs should be given. We will come to know tomorrow how effective fast bowling will be during the day, but somewhere or the other, you will have to go towards R Ashwin from one end after eight or 10 overs. When an hour was left, they brought Nitish Kumar Reddy. R Ashwin should have been brought in then because they were already playing fast bowling very well. After that, you showed them Nitish, whose pace is much less than the other seamers. You might have got better results if you had gone to your main bowlers,” Harbhajan Singh concluded.
