Former opener Matthew Hayden weighed in on the catastrophic outing that South Africa and Australia batters endured during the World Test Championship (WTC) final and believes some of the wickets stemmed from “clear technical deficiencies”, reported JioHotstar. On the first and second days of the pulsating contest, a staggering 28 wickets fell, 14 each, as batters across both teams failed to negate the seam movement.
Historical data suggests that the pitch didn’t do anything special compared to the past numbers. During the second innings on Day 2, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster and captain Pat Cummins were taking the long route towards the dugout in the space of 42 balls, leaving Australia reeling at 73/7.
For Hayden, the demands of Test cricket require a batter to get comfortable with low scoring rates, which is completely different from the sport’s white-ball-dominated standards. In T20s, players often try to make room for themselves and then cut the ball away to accelerate the scoring rate. The approach resonated in the manner of Labuschagne, Cameron Green and Wesbter’s dismissals in the second innings. The troika didn’t try to reduce the distance between their position and the ball, which resulted in giving away a thick outside edge or getting pinned in front of the stumps.
“Test match cricket demands that you get comfortable with not scoring quickly something that’s the opposite of what the shorter formats teach. T20 batting encourages moving away from the ball to create space and power, but in Tests, that becomes a weakness. Dismissals like those of Labuschagne, Green, and Webster all stemmed from not getting close to the ball,” Hayden said on JioHotstar.
“We were taught to ‘smell the leather’–to let the ball come under your eyes. In the longer format, that means moving towards the ball, not away from it. At the moment, there are clear technical deficiencies as these players readjust to Test cricket,” he added.
Former India coach and cricketer Sanjay Bangar focused on modern batters’ positional play, allowing them to thrive under certain conditions and turn them into sitting ducks in others. “This might be a tendency among Australian and South African batters. Many of them, like Marnus Labuschagne, are consistently getting out on that fifth or sixth stump line. Standing on off stump makes you think defensively, and your front foot doesn’t go towards the ball,” he said.
“You’re worried about LBW, and that hesitation impacts technique. In England, successful batters like Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, and Joe Root often stayed leg side of the ball. On bouncy wickets, you can get away with it, but in these conditions, you become a sitting duck in front of the stumps,” he added.
