Zaheer Khan celebrates a wicket with teammates, at the MCG

Calcutta: Indian batting, on paper, is their strength in their mission Down Under. It was the bowling department, because of their inexperience, which was seen as the side’s weak-link.

But after the first Test and a crushing 122-run defeat, the things are pretty opposite. Former Australian player Dean Jones has echoed a similar point, according to The Age.

Jones said he was impressed by the way pace spearhead Zaheer Khan bowled in the opening Test, but described the performance of the famed Indian batsmen as “substandard”.

“I was in awe of the way Zaheer bowled in the Melbourne Test... He doesn’t have super pace but knows how to set up a batsman by having the ability to swing the ball both ways,” Jones said.

On the India’s batting, Jones said: “The Indian batsmen weren’t much different and the quality of batsmanship in the Test was substandard, considering there were so many great players.” However, he was full of praise for Sachin Tendulkar and he felt that Australian batsmen could have learnt from the Indian great.

“I loved the six hit by Tendulkar with his first ball after lunch on Day II... It was a shot saying, ‘Don’t bowl that stuff to me!’ Watching the great Tendulkar bat with Dravid was a learning experience. Obviously our batsmen didn’t watch closely enough,” he said.

Adding to his criticism of the Australian batsmen, Jones said: “I cannot believe the lack of discipline and application shown by some of our batsmen… Their headwork and footwork is deplorable at times, and they seem to have no regard for their wicket. When batsmen are consistently making the same mistakes, it tells me that they are practising like that and it is bleeding into their game.”

On a different note, Jones believes that the players should be kept away from their WAGs during the matches. “Maybe there are too many distractions during a home series and it may be time that we have a couple of Test matches where the team is away from wives and partners. The players need to find some quiet time and have a good think about their game. A lot of the time this game is played between the ears and our batsmen seem to take the easy option,” he wrote.

Brett Lee, on the other hand, praised James Pattinson and asked him to retain his aggression. “I think it’s controlled aggression and as a fast bowler you have to be in the batsman’s face,” Lee was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

“There’s a line that we know you can’t cross… But as long as no one is being racially vilified or being sworn at, it’s Test cricket, so it’s meant to be nice, hard, competitive cricket. It's great to see him steaming in. He’s obviously full of confidence and he’s got his tail up… He’s bowling fast and taking wickets, it’s great,” Lee said.