Australia punched themselves in mouth long before first ball was bowled: Greg Chappell

Citing Mike Tyson Australian great Greg Chappell has slammed the teams forgettable performance in the first two Tests against India saying the visitors punched themselves in the mouth long before the first ball was even bowledAustralia have already conceded the BorderGavaskar Trophy after being hammered in the first two Tests of the fourmatch series both games ending under three days and prompting sharp reactions from the countrys former cricketersIt was Mike Tyson who said in the leadup to a fight with Evander Holyfield Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouthMy concern after watching the first two Tests is that the Australian team punched themselves in the mouth long before the first ball was even bowled Chappell wrote in the Sydney Morning HeraldHe has also questioned Australias planning for the ongoing tour of the countryIt is one thing to plan but to base that plan on a flawed premise is an exercise in futility he addedBeaten by an innings and 132 runs in Nagpur Australia opted to go in with only one pacer in Delhi skipper Pat Cummins They dropped Scott Boland and handed debut to leftarm spinner Matthew KuhnemannAustralia needed to play to their strengths to have a chance of winning this series Spin bowling is not our strength Picking spinners for the sake of it is not the way to success in IndiaWe had to pick our best bowlers and trust them to do the job and back that with sensible batting based on sound principlesAlso Read Border Gavaskar Trophy With Warner yet to recover Australia have to take big calls for Indore TestHe said leaving out Boland for an extra spinner was a mistakeThat Cummins underbowled himself and failed to use the short ball on a wicket of variable bounce was another mistake To complete the trifecta it seems that no one saw fit to tell Cummins that he was underbowling and that he should use the short ballChappell also gave his views on the Australian batters overreliance on the sweep shots which led to their downfall in the second innings of the Delhi TestAdding it to your repertoire in spinning conditions can be sensible but not if it is the only option There are other shots that are less risky and likely to be more profitable but because the sweep for most batsmen has to be premeditated the other options invariably fall by the waysideOne of the first things to learn about batting in Indian conditions is that you have more time than you realise The main goal should be to survive the first couple of overs and rotate the strike If you can survive that then batting no longer seems as challenging as Fermats Last TheoremIndia won the second Test in Delhi by six wickets despite Australia having their nose ahead at one stage of the game The visitors reduced India to 139 for seven in their first innings but a 114run partnership between Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel rescued the hostsThen in their second innings Australia were going along nicely before committing a harakiri on the third morningWhat can Australia do from here Firstly pick their best team and then play with the passion tenacity and grit which is our hallmark Australian fans know that it is tough in IndiaThey can accept getting beaten by a better side but they wont cop seeing an Australian team playing recklessly and bowled out in a session or two and turning its toes up inside three days There is redhot anger bewilderment and embarrassment in our fans Chappell saidThe remaining two Tests are scheduled in Indore and AhmedabadThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever