“Against spin bowling on a pitch like that, you would say my ‘swim between the flags’ is play straight, hit with spin.

“Let’s just stick to those two theories. Straight bat ... I’m going to be playing every single ball with the spin.”

Clarke said Australia failed to learn from the way India bat in spinning conditions, which included all but ignoring the sweep shot.

“It’s like we’re not watching India bat,” he said. “Why would you not look at that example and go, ‘OK, these guys know the conditions so well, and this is how they’re playing’. Why would we try and do something different when they have been so good?

“The game was there for us to win if we make 200 ... and we were 1-60.”

Clarke also questioned the field placings of captain Cummins when India needed 115 to win.

“I’m not sure what happened with our tactics,” Clarke said. “We had just 100 runs on the board.

“At one stage, Patty Cummins had four blokes on the boundary. There’s 2½ days left in the Test match. You’re either bowling India out for under a hundred or you’re losing: one or the other.

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“If you lose in 20 overs, or you lose in two days, it’s irrelevant. So fielders get up, bat-pad off side, bat-pad leg side. If the ball turns, if the ball bounces, if the ball shoots along the ground, if you make an error in judgment, you are getting out.

“That’s what Australia had to do with the ball. I know it’s only a tiny run lead, but we had to still try and win the game, and we had mid-off back, mid-on back, deep point, deep square leg. What was I watching?”

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