Jackson Barrett: The growing Australian issue with the ball that was exposed by India’s brave partnership

Tail-end partnerships are becoming a concerning trend for Australia in recent series as they continue to search for an effective Plan B with ball in hand.

Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar clawed India back from what seemed at lunch to be an unwinnable position in the Boxing Day Test.

The pair combined to make 127 runs for the eighth wicket and left the visitors 126 behind Australia’s first-innings score.

Washington was caught behind off Nathan Lyon for 50 and received a standing ovation on his way off after the sixth-largest partnership made against Australia in the past two years.

Reddy went on to score a famous Test hundred and strengthened his case for a shift even higher up the order.

But this is a regular occurrence now for the Aussies.

Aamer Jamal and Salman Agha Ali both made late-order scores for Pakistan in last year’s Melbourne Test. Bowler Matt Henry was New Zealand’s third-highest run-scorer in their two-match series earlier this year — Australia’s most recent series — and even West Indies were able to eek out runs late on during their tour last summer.

Another eighth-wicket partnership, between Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel in India last year was worth 114 and is the ninth largest made against Australia in the past two seasons.

On Friday, they turned to their oft-used short-ball tactic to the tail, which Reddy looked comfortable against. Then they ran spin from both ends in the lead up to the new ball.

Once they had the fresh Kookaburra, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland simply didn’t bowl enough of their good balls.

One of the biggest knocks on Cummins’ captaincy is his ability to turn to plans that can change the course of matches, rather than relying on the sheer mastery of the best bowling attack in the world.

India had the best batting conditions of the entire Test on Friday, but their assertive style also pushed Australia’s bowlers away from off-stump.

The day before, they had stayed patient — maybe even to a fault — outside off against Virat Kohli, but don’t seem interested in running the same tactics to lower order batting.

After the tea-time rain delay, Mitch Marsh, Starc and Boland went wider. It was the first time we had seen an obvious change of approach, but it didn’t suck them in.

“Coming out from that break we tried to take them a bit wider with the ball, we set a 7-2 field and wanted to see if they were going to flash their hands outside off stump,” Boland said after play.

“Prior to that we were just into normal Test match rhythm of trying to create chances with a newish ball and trying to get a bit of bounce and seam, so it was pretty standard before then I guess.”

Reddy also played Nathan Lyon with all the comfort of an arm chair for his unbeaten 105.

Eventually they got Washington with a Lyon delivery that gripped and spun and they got Jasprit Bumrah with a Cummins ball that was too fast and too accurate.

But did Australia give themselves enough chances to take those wickets earlier?