Australian coach John Buchanan has said that V V S Laxman continued to be a cause of worry for the world champions as their plans for a 3-0 whitewash in the series against India was foiled by the stylish right-hander who returned to form with a half century in the final Test in Mumbai.
"Tendulkar was brilliant but Laxman once again scored important runs against us. We have to think afresh about these two batsmen," Buchanan was quoted as saying by the 'The Khaleej Times' on Monday.
Australia lost the final Test by 13 runs after they failed to chase a 107-run target, which reduced their victory margin to 2-1 in the four-match series.
Praising Laxman's fluency to play spin, Buchanan said "only three half centuries were scored and they were by Damien Martyn, Tendulkar and Laxman. They are the best three against spin from this generation. But Laxman was the most fluent.
"They won only one Test and Laxman once again top scored", he said. Buchanan said the view that the Australian batsmen had learnt to handle the spinners was proved wrong in the Mumbai Test.
"After the first three Tests, I thought our batsmen had done very well against spin. But Mumbai has proved that we have not yet mastered the art of playing spin. If you are number one, you have to score 107 runs and win."
Although Buchanan agreed that pitch was a factor in their 13-run defeat, he said his batsmen should have successfully chased the target.
"I would ask for an ICC inquiry. Everybody has seen what has happened. Inquiry is important," he said, adding "wicket is not the only reason. If you think logically, our batsmen should have scored those runs.
"We should have got more runs in the first innings. We lost out there. The fourth innings was always going to be difficult," he said.