Australia’s surprising tactics, Ashwin’s shocking retirement decision

They ended up scoring 89/7 in 18 overs and the Indian openers batted out 13 balls before the ground was deluged by relentless rain that forced an early abandonment of the Test.

A more commonsensical approach might have been to bat in a normal fashion and let their openers Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney spend some time and get some runs to boost their confidence. Instead, Khawaja kept going for his shots and unsurprisingly lost his stumps when a Jasprit Bumrah angler from round the stumps sneaked through the bat and pad gap to ricochet off the back leg onto the stumps.

McSweeney chased a short and wide ball from Akash Deep to yield his wicket. Marnus Labuschagne had already departed with a similar attempt of Bumrah and Australia were still trying to punch away but as slightly intoxicated men.

Mitchell Marsh got a beauty from Akash, a kicker just outside the off stump that was edged and Steve Smith, who was demoted in the order to allow hitters ahead of him, fell for the second time in the series, caught down the leg side. India had initially even kept a leg slip for him but had just removed that fielder when Mohammad Siraj pinged his hips with an inward-curler. And Smith, like he would do at Adelaide, couldn’t swivel in time for his glance, and nicked it down leg for Rishabh Pant to take a sharp diving catch to his left.

Travis Head landed a few punches before he fell trying to heave Siraj, with Pant taking the miscued swirler. And soon, Australia declared at 89 for 7, leaving many puzzled with their approach.

On the fourth evening too they had similarly confounded many with their prolonged bouncer tactic against Bumrah and Akash even when it had become apparent that the ploy wasn’t working. The ball had gone very soft and it wasn’t bouncing that quickly, allowing Akash to get behind it rather confidently. Perhaps, fuller-length balls could have been mixed in more frequently but the spread-out field allied with the short-ball barrage allowed India to evade the follow-on. The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir celebrated in the dressing room. Nathan Lyon had found that celebration odd, saying: “A few of us as well after play, we spoke about that and we were surprised by some of their reactions, especially the way we’ve gone about this game.”

On Wednesday evening, Rohit had a meaningful smile when Lyon’s comments were mentioned to him. “ I have played enough here to know about mind games and who are the chit-chatters. From our personal point of view, we were behind the game. Obviously, it’s a little victory for us to avoid that follow-on, looking at how the weather was going to play, looking at where the game was heading.”

In the end, the game turned out to be one where both teams would be happy. India because they achieved jailbreak and drew the game from a position where they could have lost.

Australia will feel they were ahead for longer periods in the game, and could think if not for rain they could have seized the result they wanted. They could have, but there were also some questionable calls from them, from their decision not to declare early in the first innings to the way they batted on the last day.

India could well take a lot of heart from their performances from the moment Ravindra Jadeja came to bat and joined KL Rahul.

In the end, the Brisbane Test would be remembered for that last-wicket partnership between Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah that avoided the follow-on and for Ashwin’s decision to retire.

In 2021, the Australian captain had sledged Ashwin about ‘can’t wait to see you at Gabba, Mate’; Ashwin didn’t play that game but saw India pull off a famous win. Three years later, he couldn’t play again at another Gabba Test, but saw India avoid a follow-on. More importantly, his association with Gabba, despite having played just one Test here in 2014, will be forever etched in a sledge that went horribly wrong, and as the venue where he shocked the cricketing world by retiring mid-series.