Inability to work out a plan 'B' cost Australia the series against India, reckons Waugh

Australia succumbed to their second home series loss at the hands of India earlier this year, which included a defeat at their fortress Gabba for the first time in over three decades.  Former Australia captain Steve Waugh reckons that Australia did not have a plan B or C during the series against India, who despite being dampened by injuries, managed to sneak a 2-1 series win, after being bowled out for just 36 in the first Test in Adelaide.

Waugh called for the Tim Paine-led side to be a bit more flexible. "You’re planning so much these days, and have all these set plans," Waugh told the Fox Cricket podcast.

"When it doesn’t work out, you mightn’t have that Plan B or Plan C, or the one that’s a bit out of the box and left-field thinking. That was possibly needed by Australia in a few of the matches they should’ve won."

“Maybe we relied too much on the quartet of amazing bowlers and sometimes those guys get tired," he added.

Waugh, at the same time, feels that Australia should not overanalyse when things are going well. Hence, during 1990s and 2000s when Australia were at their dominant best, they would never spend much time in team meetings. 

“When (Plan A) doesn’t work you sort of forget about those intuitive instinctive moments that sometimes you need to win a Test match – and potentially we’ve probably missed out on that over the last 12 months," he said.

“If you’re going well, I thought there’s no point in tinkering with it too much – just let it roll along and don’t overanalyse. That was one of the keys to our success when we won a lot of Ashes series, that we didn’t have too many meetings,” the veteran of 168 Tests and 325 ODIs added.