I believe we’ve played equally as well as the Indians: Mark Waugh

India completed the formality of scoring the 87 runs required on the 5th day with 8 wickets still intact to win the match and edge the closely fought series 2-1 to end the long home season on an emphatic note. They also regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and were also awarded the ICC Test Mace for being the No.1 ranked team in Test rankings.

But this win wouldn’t have felt this sweet if this was another walk in the park for Team India like other series this home season. The fact that Australia gave such a good account of themselves made this win even sweeter. Many had already written off this Australian team even before they arrived in India with some branding Steve Smith’s team as the ‘weakest’ Australian team to have ever toured India.

Many ‘experts’ predicted a 4-0 whitewash but Australia stunned everyone as they beat India by a huge 333 runs margin in the first Test. They had them on the mat in the second one too and made India dig deep to clinch the series. Naturally, they are gathering plaudits even after losing the series.

Australia’s chief selector Mark Waugh has given his vote of confidence to Steve Smith stating that it was an even series. He said, “There’s been nothing between the two teams. I believe we’ve played equally as well as the Indians on the tour, Obviously, in this [Dharamsala] Test match we haven’t played quite as well, but there’s been a lot of positive signs from the Australian camp. Individuals have done well so we can take a lot of confidence from playing well in conditions where we don’t normally do well.”

Smith led them from the front by scoring 499 runs including 3 centuries in the series, Waugh decided to highlight and praise other individual performances from Australia in the series.

Cummins was drafted into squad in the 3rd Test after Starc got injured and despite making a comeback into the team after a long time (his last test was in 2011), he seamlessly replaced Starc and troubled the ‘mighty’ Indian batsman in the last two Tests, so naturally Waugh had reserved a high praise for him stating, “(Cummins) got three wickets in India’s first innings but I’ve seen guys bowl worse and get seven wickets. He bowled superbly … he was unlucky. So it’s great signs for Pat and he’s done a great job.”

He had high regards for other bowlers too, praising Josh Hazelwood for being consistent and also the spin pair of Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe for their ability to consistently bowl long spells and bear the workload. Even the batsmen got a pat on their back from Waugh especially Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell for coming up with the goods when required of them but he also remarked that their inconsistency might have hurt.

Young Matt Renshaw did quite well in the series, occupying the crease for long periods in first 3 matches, though he failed to deliver in the last match. Waugh still gave a tick for the series stating “Matt Renshaw, this Test match he was disappointing but overall I think you’ve got to give him a tick for his series.

Renshaw’s opening partner and vice-captain David Warner was the only one who was faulted by Waugh. Warner came into the series in a rich vein of form but struggled throughout the series, According to Waugh his bad form might have been the reason for Australia’s undoing “It’s probably really only David Warner who’s left a lot of runs in the bank. He’s been the one player that’s struggled and he’s one of our bigger players. So there’s no doubt his form has probably hurt the result in the series.”

– Written by Sachin Sourav Jha