Michael Clarke Lists Out "Major, Major Mistakes" By Australia, Admits He Isn't Surprised By Team's Struggles

Australia's wretched run on the tour of India so far has been filled with "major, major mistakes", reckons former captain Michael Clarke. Clarke feels the biggest mistake Australia made was not playing a tour game ahead of the four-Test series that began February 9. Instead, Pat Cummins chose to simulate Indian conditions back home before having a short camp near Bengaluru ahead of the series opener in Nagpur. Two weeks later, the visitors are 0-2 down in the series and have already lost a shot at regaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

"I'm not surprised by what I'm seeing because we didn't have a tour game. Major, major, major mistake. There should have been at least one game over there to get used to the conditions," Clarke said on Monday on Big Sports Breakfast.

The Australian batters' inability to play top-quality spin has been thoroughly expose in the first two Tests.

In Delhi, they tried to sweep their way out of trouble but that ploy failed miserably. Apart from that, another major mistake, according to Clarke, was not playing Travis Head in the series opener.

The southpaw top-scored for Australia in the second innings with a 43 off 46 balls before his team collapsed to 113 all out. It was also the first time he opened in Tests.

"Selection for the first Test, major, major mistake. Second Test, blokes sweeping, we saw enough of that the first Test match. They're not the right conditions to sweep when you start your innings. And they're never going to be the right conditions to reverse sweep against the spin at the start of your innings," said Clarke.

Half of the side fell to sweep or reverse sweep on a track with low bounce.

"It doesn't matter how many support staff there are around, you're playing for Australia.