Sachin Tendulkar exposes Aussie mistake amid pressure on Pat Cummins at World Cup

Sachin Tendulkar has identified a glaring issue for Australia after their opening Cricket World Cup defeat to tournament hosts India. The Aussies let a golden chance to defeat the heavyweights slip through their fingers after gifting a reprieve to Virat Kohli (85), who combined with KL Rahul (97 not out) to help lead India to a six-wicket victory, with 8.4 overs to spare.

Aussie skipper Pat Cummins faced questioned around his captaincy after turning to spin when his quicks were well on top. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc ran through the Indian top order to leave them reeling at 3-2, with Starc dismissing Ishan Kishan for a duck in the first over, before Hazlewood got Rohit Sharma lbw and Sharias Iyer caught by David Warner.

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Kohli and Rahul then took India to 3-20 before Mitch Marsh missed a golden opportunity to catch out the home side's lynchpin when he got in a horror mix-up with wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The spilled chance proved costly as Kohli made the most of his reprieve to take the game away from the Aussies with the help of his unbeaten partner.

Despite Australia's blistering start off the back of their pacemen, Cummins turned to spin in a period where India's batters well and truly got on top of the visitors. Cummins was no doubt hoping his tweakers Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell could have the same impact as India's Ravindra Jadeja (3-28), Kuldeep Yadav (2-42) and Ravi Ashwin (1-34).

Following Cummins' decision to turn to spin by the 10th over, part-timer Maxwell went for 0-33 from his eight overs, while frontline leg-spinner Adam Zampa also failed to have much impact after carding figures of 0-53 from eight. Tendulkar took to social media after the match to declare that Australia made a mistake by not picking another left-arm spinner in their side following the calf injury to Ashton Agar that ruled the tweaker out of the World Cup.

The India great also questioned Cummins' decision to bat first after winning the toss, with the evening dew making the ball softer and wetter during the run chase. The conditions meant the Aussie spinners in particular were unable to extract the same bounce and turn as their Indian counterparts. It also meant Zampa was unable to grip the ball with maximum effect.

Sachin Tendulkar questions Aussie approach

"I was surprised to see Australia bat first after winning the toss," Tendulkar tweeted after the match. "Commendable performance by the Indian bowlers to restrict them to 199.

"Australia started well but I felt they missed a left-arm spinner on this surface. The partnership between Virat and Rahul sealed the game for us. They very smartly took their time and were able to execute some superb shots. The ball surely came onto the bat much better in the second half of the game. Congratulations to #TeamIndia on a good start."

The Aussies may be regretting the decision not to replace Agar with another left-arm spin option, having instead parachuted Marnus Labushagne into the squad after initially leaving him out. That leaves Zampa as the only genuine frontline spin option, with Maxwell and the injured Travis Head the other main tweakers at Cummins' disposal.

Australia may look to replace one of their injured stars with another spin option ahead of upcoming matches against South Africa and Sri Lanka on the typically spin-friendly pitch in Lucknow. Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Swepson, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Tanveer Sangha are the leading spin candidates for Australia, with all-rounder Marcus Stoinis - who missed the opening game with a hamstring injury - perhaps the most likely to make way.

Veteran quick Hazlewood denies suggestions the Aussies are short of spin options, however, and said their strength remains in their dangerous pace attack. “Our quicks are our strength up front, as we saw tonight (against India),” Hazlewood said after the opening game.

“We might come up against these conditions again at other grounds, so it’ll just be about the batting group coming up with the plan (to combat the spin) and sticking to it. I think Glenn Maxwell is a frontline spinner in particular in India. He’s bowled a lot here throughout IPL and one-dayers, so we’ve got two spinners and three quicks as a lot of the other teams do. I don’t feel that we’re short at all.”

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