The turning point of the second day of the second Test in Hyderabad on Sunday, is an off the field affair, and concerns the Australian selection policy.
The strategy of dropping Nathan Lyon and opting for a twin spin attack, in the form of the inexperienced Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell, for the Test completely backfired on the team.
Or shall we say boomeranged?
Lyon, for all his profligacy, at least had four wickets to show for his effort, one of them a beauty of a delivery that accounted for Sachin Tendulkar.
Doherty and Maxwell, the latter making his Test debut having already made the headlines in India for the price (US$ 1 million) that Mumbai Indians paid to acquire him ahead of the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League, were ineffective throughout, doing little more than ensuring exercise for the Australian fielders.
To put it bluntly, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara rendered them impotent on a wicket that did offer spinners a lot of help, the Indian bowlers proving the same.
The ineffective Australian spinners, coupled with their top order batsmen, have literally gifted the match to the home team.
Image; Glenn Maxwell
Photograph: BCCI
