India vs Australia 2017: 5 reasons why India succumbed to a huge loss in Pune

#3 – Pune pitch spectacularly backfiring on India

India’s batsmen had no clue to O’Keefe’s straighter delivery

On first look, the Pune pitch was designed to suit India’s strengths – enchanting spin bowling and wristy batting. However, the extreme amount of turn and bounce on offer actually narrowed the gap between the two teams, particularly their spin attacks.

India’s lead spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been weaving webs around opposition batsmen for quite some time. They only need a hint of turn to find their rhythm and run through batting line-ups. On this surface, a simpler approach paid richer dividends.

All Steve O’Keefe had to do was make the batsmen play on a regular basis. While some deliveries hit the rough patches and turned, most came straight on with the angle to confound Indian batsmen. On the other hand, the copious amount of turn meant that India’s spinners repeatedly beat the outside edge with not much luck.

This was a classical case of a strength turning into a weakness.