Mohali, March 11
Already two-down in the series, the visiting Australian team plunged deep into a crisis as four players - vice-captain Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja - were axed before the third Test for not making a presentation on how to combat India. To make matters worse, just three days before the Mohali Test, Watson left for home midway the tour, to be with his pregnant wife.

“After Hyderabad, the whole team was really hurt, we were discussing ways of getting back into the series,” Australia coach Mickey Arthur announced today. “We were particularly aware of where we were as a team and how we were going to get back. I asked the players at the end of the game to give me an individual presentation. I wanted three points from each of them technically, mentally and the team as to how we were going to get back over the next couple of games, how we were going to get ourselves back into the series. Unfortunately four players didn't comply with that.”

The coach dropped the bombshell today even as the team was getting ready for the nets. The decision leaves Australia with effectively a 12-member squad. Watson was at the practice session for less than 15 minutes before he left. The replacement for injured wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, Brad Haddin, was still on a flight to India.

The “line-in-the-sand moment” came after the quartet failed to meet the deadline set for giving the presentation and Arthur, along with skipper Michael Clarke and team manager Gavin Dovey, felt that it was important to enforce discipline by punishing them.

The players were informed of the task on Tuesday night last week and were asked to ensure it was done by Saturday evening.

“We have given the players a huge amount of latitude to get culture and attitude right,” Arthur added. “We believe that those behaviours with what we want to do with this team, how we want to take this team to be the best in the world, teams that are the best in the world have best attitudes and best behaviour patterns and a good, hard, ruthless culture.”

The coach went to the extent of saying that, “maybe some people have been cutting corners. Perhaps, there have been some soft options taken. We decided that we needed to really get that in line.”

He, however, clarified that the four players would be available for the fourth Test.