Credit: Google
Enterprising. Charismatic. Unafraid to take on the mighty Australians! These are just of the adjectives to describe Team India when they took on the Aussies in a captivating test series a few years down the line, so much so that their brand of exciting cricket that led to some strikingly good results actually came - now if you think about it- a little over half a decade ago. But facts first. In the year 2018, right at the fag end of the year, India played a brand of highly competitive and keenly-anticipated contests, four, to be precise, Down Under. The ultimate result of these games spelt victory for the visiting Team, i.e., India. But a key fixture of these contests, in particular, was the fact that neither Steve Smith nor Marnus Labuschagne played the games. They even missed out on the very game that marked the half point of the series.
So what happened last time when Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne did not play for Australia in a Test match together since they have missed out on taking the field against West Indies in Bridgetown, Barbados this week?
Now, for starters, the famed 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test series in Australia did turn out to be a disappointing one for the hosts, who’ve often belittled several high octane and well-placed sides in international cricket. And on that particular occasion, Australia were only able to win a solitary contest while India claimed two big and prominent ones, besides one contest ending in a draw.
Absolute scenes at MCG in 2018-19 BGT Series
Now one of those two big wins for India came at one of the most glorious grounds in all of Australian cricket, a massively impressive Mecca for big international games; an icon in itself and the cynosure of countless eyes: the Melbourne Cricket Ground aka the MCG. To put it simply, in order to understand what happened the last time when Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne did not play together for Australia in a Test match - their opponents prevailed.
However, if one were to delve a bit deeper to understand the Australian predicament in the absence of two highly accomplished batters - Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne - not playing together, one would also need to understand the critical factor that underscored India’s epic MCG victory. The man most current batters fear and when they don’t, they quite simply like to avoid his bowling- Jasprit Bumrah.
It was back in the famed contest of Melbourne between Australia and India that the game’s eventual player-of-the-match Jasprit Bumrah tore through the Australian attack and ensured his team won the contest courtesy an excellent demonstration of clean and hard fast bowling. As a matter of fact, courtesy Pujara’s batting brilliance at Adelaide, India had already fired the opening salvo in the series opener. On a pitch that was hard to score many runs on, Pujara defied a legendary Aussie line-up featuring Lyon, Starc, Cummins.
But in the very next game, the hosts bounced back at Perth leaving Melbourne, at the Boxing Day, as the critical venue for what could have been a series deciding contest with just one more test to go. And with Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne not playing the third critical contest at the famed MCG, it was a great opportunity for the mighty impressive Bumrah to roll through the Aussie line-up.
It is worthwhile to remember that back at that time, the Australian batting order saw none other than Aaron Finch at the top with Tim Paine being the lower order batter. If you think about it now, you'd realise that the series was so far back in time that Paine led his team. However, the Aussies sported a significantly different look to what is evident today with the likes of Marcus Harris being in the team back then as opposed to talents like Beau Webster and Travis Head forming what is still a very promising and strong line up.
But more on Bumrah would suggest that India's absolutely brilliant fast charger with the red ball prevailed over a side that desperately missed Steve Smith's charisma and Marnus Labuschagne's ability to strive against all odds on that occasion.
How was that, but?
With six wickets in the first innings, including the big key dismissals of Harris, Marsh and Head, Bumrah was really at it. Moreover, his supreme line and length bowling damaged Australia so badly that they were hardly able to reach 200; getting dismissed for 151 on the whole.
That was after India had piled up a mammoth 443/7dec first innings score. In their next inning, Jasprit Bumrah captured three wickets again, on this occasion getting the better of Shaun Marsh (again) along with Aaron Finch's big wicket for a single-digit score and later, removing Pat Cummins.
It was an out and out Bumrah show in the 2018-19 series with Australia missing out on two of their key batters in Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.
But just how important these two have been against such a ferocious opponent like India can be understood by their collective run-making talent.
Let's for a moment understand their individual brilliance the last time they played a WTC final prior to their loss at Lord's recently. It was the 2023 World Test Championship final contest that came against India in England's Kennington Oval, a game utterly dominated by Travis Head. But before the dogged left-hander's century came about, it was runs for Labuschagne and Smith in the middle order that deflated India.
How?
Smith and Labuschagne had between them no fewer than 222 runs in the WTC final (2023). While Australia's usual number three in Labuschagne made careful starts against India in that winner-takes-all contest, making 26 and 41 in England, Steve Smith had struck a mega century - a crafty and patient 121 during Australia's first innings score. His stay for 268 deliveries meant that India were thrown under the bus, the all-time batting legend from New South Wales eating up India's bowling akin to a huge blue whale that attacks unsuspecting swimmers in the ocean.
That Smith and Labuschagne aren't contesting in the ongoing West Indies series is also a kind of blow to the visiting team. A simple piece of statistic would imply that.
And their batting averages against the West Indies suggest the same - Smith averages a whopping 124 against the West Indies national cricket team while Labuschagne averages north of 86. If that doesn't convey the Australians missing out on some phenomenal batting talent, then what is?
