After the dismal performance in the
recently concluded home series against New Zealand, India badly wanted to have
a redemption plan against the strong Australian lineup in their backyard. India
started in great style when they thrashed Australia and won comprehensively for
a margin of 295 runs in the first test match of the Border-Gavaskar trophy at
Perth. But after the first match of the series India lost their path and
Australia on the other hand managed to rectify their mistakes and bounce back
strongly. Australia won the series 3-1 and regained the Border-Gavaskar trophy
after 10 years. Jasprith Bumrah took most of the responsibility in the bowling
department. He got minimal support from the other end. For his great efforts, he was adjudged as the Player of the Series. The Indian batsmen
lacked the application required in those demanding batting conditions.
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| Australian Team with Border-Gavaskar Trophy |
First Test, Perth:
In the absence of Rohit Sharma,
Jasprit Bumrah led the Indian team. After winning the toss, India decided to
bat first on a bowler-friendly first-day pitch. Australian bowlers at one stage
restricted India to 73/6 before Pant (37) and Nitish Reddy (41) provided some
valuable contributions to the team total. India was all-out for 150. But
Indian pacers, especially Jasprit Bumrah (5 for 30) made most of the batting
hostile conditions and restricted Australia to 104. In the second innings, the
pitch eased out and Indian batsmen applied themselves. Yashasvi Jaiswal made
161 and Virat Kohli scored 100, to take the Indian total to 487/6.
Australian batsmen failed once again in their second innings. Despite a
fighting half-century from Travis Head, they were bowled out for 238 runs
handing over a 295-run victory for the visitors. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed
Siraj picked three wickets apiece in the second innings.
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| Yashasvi Jaiswal |
Second Test, Adelaide:
After the heroics in the first match,
Indian cricket fans’ hopes were raised and they were expecting another fierce
contest at Adelaide. At the same time, the Pink ball test also brought back
sour memories of the past. India’s record in the Day-night test is not
particularly impressive, On the other hand, Australians have a strong case in
Pink ball tests. Rohit Sharma returned to the team lineup and led the
side. After winning the toss, India elected to bat first. The first innings
woes of the Indian team continued and they were restricted to 180. Nitish Reddy
top scored with 42. In reply, Australia made 337 with Travis head scoring a
quick-fire 140. Bumrah and Siraj picked 4 wickets each. Indian batsmen failed
again and fell for 175 runs in the second innings. Once again Nitish Reddy top
scored with 42 runs. Australian captain Pat Cummins picked 5 wickets. Australia
completed the formalities in 3.2 overs in the second innings.
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| Travis Head |
Third Test, Brisbane:
This time, winning the toss India
decided to bowl first. Initially, the decision proved right after Indian
bowlers picked 3 Australian wickets for 75 runs. But after that the wicket
columns dried up and Steven Smith and Travis Head made centuries. The duo
parted at the score of 316. Later India folded up the Australian first innings
for 445 runs. As usual, Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers as he took 6
wickets for 76 runs. In reply, India was all out for 260 runs. KL Rahul and
Ravindra Jadeja made half-centuries for India. Pat Cummins scalped 4 wickets
for 81 runs. The rain has come and too many overs have been lost in the match.
In the second innings, the Australians tried for some quick runs and got
themselves in a position of 89/7. They set India a target of 275 runs, with
close to 45 overs to be bowled. But rain played spoilsport once again and
Indian innings could only go as far as 2.1 overs. The match ended in a draw and
the score line remained 1-1.
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| Pat Cummins |
Fourth Test, Melbourne
Australia won the toss for the first
time in the series and they elected to bat first. Steven Smith scored a century
(140) to take the Australian total to 474. Jasprit Bumrah picked 4 wickets,
while Ravindra Jadeja had 3. India’s first-innings score reached 369, with a
century from the young all-rounder Nitish Reddy and half-centuries from Jaiswal
and Washington Sundar. Australia were bowled out for 234 in their second
innings. The Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah once again picket 5 Aussie
wickets. India were bowled out for 155 in their second innings. Yashasvi
Jaiswal scored a hard-fought 84 off 208 deliveries. Other than him, only
Rishabh Pant has crossed the double digits. Australia won by 184 runs and moved
2-1 up in the series.
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| Nitish Kumar Reddy |
Fifth Test, Sydney
The pitch for the fifth test looked
very green. The Indian captain Rohit Sharma opted to rest himself in the match
and Jasprit Bumrah was leading the side. After winning the toss, India opted to
bat. Batting was not easy on this green pitch and Indian innings ended at 185 runs.
Rishabh Pant top scored with 40 runs off 98 deliveries. In reply, Indian
bowlers restricted the Australian batsmen for 181 runs. Prasidh Krishna and
Mohammed Siraj picked 3 wickets each. But Indian batsmen failed to capitalize
on the situation and once again they failed miserably. Apart from Rishabh Pant
(61), no other Indian batsmen were to make a valuable contribution. Indian
innings ended at 157 runs. Australia were given a target of 162 runs. It was
going to be a challenging target on the green pitch. Unfortunately, Indian
Captain Jasprit Bumrah was injured and unavailable to bowl in the second
innings. He had left the ground during the midst of the Australian first
innings. In the Australian second innings, they reached 58/3 and gave some
hope. But India missed the services of Bumrah. Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh
Krishna bowled 12 overs each and picked 4 wickets between them. Australia
reached the target with the loss of 4 wickets.
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| Bumrah celebrating after getting the wicket of Usman Khawaja |
Reasons for India's Loss in Recent
Test Matches
The Bazball phenomenon in English
Test cricket is influencing the world to some extent. India’s test victory
against Bangladesh had some elements of Bazball in it. There is a drastic
change in the mindset of batsmen. Bazball might not be the only reason for
this. The influence of T20 cricket has played a part in this. After half a
dozen dot balls, the batsmen automatically seem to come under pressure. And
trying to score, they manufacture shots or fail to play the ball according to
its merit. In such a way they tend to lose their wicket. India’s loss against
New Zealand was unexpected. The Indian Cricket fans are yet to digest the 3-0
loss in their backyard. The series exposed Indian Batsmen’s technical flaws
and the inability to play quality spin on a turning track. This was not the
case some years back. Indian batsmen always boasted of great ability to play
even the best spinners on a spin-friendly track. Even the big names like Virat
Kohli and Rohit Sharma failed to cope with spinning home conditions. Before
this tournament, New Zealand had lost a series to Sri Lanka.
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| Virat Kohli |
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy showed
India’s inability to play quality seam bowling. Yashaswi Jaiswal played some
quality innings and was the pick of the Indian Batsmen. KL Rahul started well
and did play some quality innings. But he couldn’t carry on the good work to
the last matches of the tournament. He lacked the consistency required when it
mattered the most. He has the quality and temperament but needs more
consistency. Shubhman Gill has always been an underperformer in India's test
matches. He can’t be considered a dependable Test batsman in bowling-friendly
conditions. Rohit Sharma himself felt like a fish out of water. It appeared
like he had lost the touch in Test matches, lacked the application and his footwork
was minimal. Virat Kohli made a century in the first Test match. But other than
that innings, he didn’t make a substantial contribution. He was dismissed
identically in almost all of his innings. He edged it to behind the wicket to
be caught out. He failed to solve the problem and seemed like a walking wicket
in other innings. He could take a leaf out of Sachin’s innings of 241* at
Sydney, where he scored those runs without a single cover drive. But Kohli
seemed to lack that dedication and patience. Rishabh Pant always played
attacking cricket and it has given results in the past as well. He is known for
that brand of cricket. He did score some 40s and a half-century, but at times
seemed to throw away his wicket. He can play his attacking shots but needs to
respect the conditions and look into the fielding placements. Nitish Kumar
Reddy was brought in as an allrounder. He scored his first century in the
tournament and a couple of 40s. Nitish Kumar performed well with bat and was a
success in the batting department. But his bowling lacked the pace and bounce
to trouble the batsmen. He was considered to share the workload of the pacers.
But that was not to be the case. He was only used occasionally and at times
leaked runs. He did pick some wickets but lacked the spike. Ravindra Jadeja was
picked as an all-rounder. But picking a spinner all-rounder in the Australian
conditions lacked purpose. In addition to Jadeja, India had Washington Sundar
in the reigns. India already had Nitish Kumar as an allrounder and could have
gone for specialist batsmen in place of Sundar or Jadeja. These spinners were
often underbowled and even their potential in bowling was underutilized. So in
that case India could have gone for a genuine spinner and specialist batsmen.
Even on a Green Sydney Pitch, India went with two spinning all-rounders in
additional to the fast-bowling all-rounder. So India had a combination of 5
specialist batsmen, 3 all-rounders, and 3 pace bowlers. How can a team win a
test match with 5 specialist batsmen? The selection of the playing XI looked
absurd at times. We also had to consider that Virat Kohli was not among the
runs and was finding it difficult to cope with the conditions. In the bowling
department, Jasprit Bumrah was the lone warrior most of the time. Mohammed
Siraj troubled the Australian batsmen at times but lacked consistency and
failed to keep the pressure from one end. He failed to step up and lead the
bowling attack when Bumrah was injured in the last match of the series. India
missed the services of a genuine attacking fast bowler. India needs to work on
the reserve of Test fast bowlers. The injury to Mohammed Shami proved to be
costly for the Indian team. In the department of spin bowling, India needs some
genuine spin bowlers who can extract bounce and turn from the pitch. Ravindra
Jadeja is more of an all-rounder and not the type of bowler who could give
flight to deliveries and extract turns from any pitch. Washington Sundar failed
to impress with the ball but contributed handsomely with the bat. Washington
Sundar is also not a great turner of the ball and at present doesn’t look
capable of filling the shoes of Ravichandran Ashwin. Kuldeep Yadav was injured
and was unavailable. India badly needs to look into the issues of Test bowling
reserves.
