Come Monday, Australia will suffer their first ever Test series defeat at the hands of India at home. Down 1-2 in the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, the most Aussies can do is pray for rain as India will come hard at them on the final day of the fourth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The manner in which the Aussies have approached the game and also their will to fight, or the lack of it have been questioned by everyone Down Under. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was one of the more vocal critics.
On Sunday, the legend picked Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc for showing "no desperation" after the duo opted not to review the LBW decision against the former on the rain-marred penultimate day.
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Lyon was adjudged LBW after being hit on the pad off a Kuldeep Yadav delivery. He asked non-striker Starc if he should opt for a review, but they ended up deciding against it despite two reviews remaining in their innings and only two wickets left.
"That dismissal actually says a lot to me about the mindset of this Australian team at the moment. There's no desperation there whatsoever," Ponting said on Channel Seven, one of the host broadcasters.
Australia were bundled out for 300 in the first innings after which India enforced the follow-on. The hosts then came out to bat in the second innings, trailing by 322 runs.
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India had piled up a mammoth 622 in their first innings.
"Why wouldn't they have had a look at that? They've still got the two reviews up their sleeve. There had to be some sort of doubt in that," Ponting added.
Questioning the reason behind Starc's silence, the former three-time World Cup winning cricketer slammed the pacer.
"Given out straight away and Mitchell Starc just puts his hand out and says 'oh well, it's not me, it's up to you to make (a call)".
"Well, unfortunately, when you're out there together it's a partnership. You've got to do whatever you can to try and save your mate. And there was absolutely none of that there," he added.
Replays suggested the ball would have probably struck Lyon outside the line of off stump and he may have been adjudged not out if DRS was taken.
"And as it's shown already that would have been given not out. Slack and not desperate enough. You can see where Mitchell Starc is standing at the non-striker's end," he added.
"One, look how wide he's standing. There's no need to be that wide in the first place. Nathan Lyon looks up, 'Oh what do you reckon?' 'Oh I don't know mate. Yeah, I don't know. But let's not bother looking. We've only got two (reviews) up our sleeve," Ponting said.
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(With AFP inputs)
