Cricket
3 hours ago
Adam White’s player ratings from Australia’s disastrous first Test
By SEN
The Australian cricket team performed well below its best in the first Test against India in Perth.
After starring with the ball in the first session, it all seemed to fall apart for the Aussies who eventually lost to the tourists by 295 runs.
While Australia improved with the bat in the second innings, the damage had well and truly been done as they faltered early in the five-Test series.
There have been no shortage of post-mortems in the aftermath which has included player ratings from cricket broadcaster Adam White.
He has given each Australian player a score out of 10 for their performance at Optus Stadium, and it’s not pretty reading.
“Everyone gets a point for participating, for getting named with a Baggy Green,” White said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“There’s not too many areas they got right.”
White’s first Test player ratings
6 - Travis Head: Scores of 11 and 89 - “I had seven but I changed to six because he got second innings runs. I wanted to see runs in the first innings.”
6 - Mitch Marsh: Scores of 6 and 47. Figures of 2/12 and 1/65 - “Valuable runs in the second innings, but he actually bowled quite well and got wickets in the first innings.”
5 - Josh Hazlewood: Figures of 4/29 and 1/28.
4 - Alex Carey: Scores of 21 and 36 - “Made a contribution with the bat in both innings but didn’t keep particularly well.”
4 - Mitchell Starc: Figures of 2/14 and 1/111.
3 - Nathan Lyon: Figures of 0/23 and 2/96.
3 - Steve Smith: Scores of 0 and 17.
2 - Nathan McSweeney: Scores of 10 and 0 - “He took a good catch in the first innings.”
2 - Usman Khawaja: Scores of 8 and 4 - “And that’s being a bit generous.”
2 - Pat Cummins: Figures of 2/67 and 1/86 - “I didn’t think he captained very well. He gifted Virat Kohli a century. He should have made it as hard as possible for Kohli to get to a hundred which then meant they wouldn’t have been batting (on Sunday night).”
1 - Marnus Labuschagne: Scores of 2 and 3.
Australia will now look to regroup for the second Test in Adelaide which kicks off on December 6.
