AUS VS INDIA | India tour of Australia, 2024-25

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

 

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