IND vs AUS: Australia coach Andrew McDonald had to face tough questions on behalf of his side in Perth on Saturday. (AP)
The first two sessions of the Perth Test in the Border Gavaskar Trophy were owned by Australia. But the game would turnaround so stunningly in the next couple of hours on Friday evening and a couple of sessions on Saturday, which has seemingly made the local Australian media almost turn hostile against its team.
It’s not sure what Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald anticipated when he walked in for the media interaction, but he had to face up to a barrage of questions criticising the team.
Sample a few:
“Andrew, do you think having Dan Vettori here would have made a difference today?” (Vettori was cleared to attend the IPL auction.)
“Greg Blewett [Former Australian opener] on commentary said that the body language in the middle session was unacceptable in his words, is that a fair call and what do you make of that?”
“There’s been criticism about Marnus Labuschagne’s innings yesterday, where do you think he’s at the moment?
“What was your takeaway from that first-day collapse of your top order?”
Jaiswal found time in his 193-ball knock to have a laugh with Labuschagne 😂 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/jv7f1zYjue
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 23, 2024
McDonald’s answers were brief negations, said with an impassive face, staring into the eyes of the different questioners.
He said Vettori “continues to be with us” but the questioner wouldn’t let that one go. “So, he is sending you suggestions from there, how does that work?” McDonald admitted that there hasn’t been on-going communication with Vettori but he was talking about the “preparation, planning” leading into the game.
As for Blewett’s observations about “unacceptable” body language, McDonald didn’t bat an eyelid: “No, I didn’t notice that”.
And he batted for his under-fire middle-order batsman Labuschagne, who had made a laborious 52-ball 2 in the first innings, saying that he will “hit the nets, work on his game” and that there is “no doubt that he can learn from his first innings”.
The mercury was rising in the room, or so it seemed during that short phase, but if it bothered him, McDonald didn’t show it much to his credit. It’s interesting though that how a couple of hours can utterly change perceptions of a team that looked all-dominant then, and had former players and their media talking them up on TV and Radio.
