Australia sealed their place in the World Test Championship final thanks to Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, who helped them reach the target of 76 with aplomb on the spinning-friendly surface of Indore. However, India could not defend their total despite the efforts of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. This loss will no doubt have forced the Indian management to take note ahead of the last match in Ahmedabad for them to book their berth in the final. Let’s take a look at 3 probable causes for the loss:
3. No counter-attack game
The Indian batters could not put the Australian bowlers under pressure in either inning. Although the openers tried their best, they could not make it work, and this caused the rest of the batting order to play cautiously. This gave the Australian spinners the advantage, stifling any development from the Indian batters. Shreyas Iyer produced a mini-resurgence in the second innings, but it was short-lived. However, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne showed that it was possible to take on the spinners, too. Their performance was the final nail in the coffin for India, whose top order seemed lost after this game.
2. Not proper use of Axar Patel as a batsman
Axar’s complete control over his stay in the game, and his strong performance with the bat throughout the series, warranted his promotion to higher positions in the batting order. Meanwhile, Jadeja struggled against Nathan Lyon in his previous three innings, giving Axar a chance to take his place. Had the team been more flexible with their batting order, they would have saved around 50 runs in this Test match.
1. Batting collapses
Despite the heroics of Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara, the Indian batters have been underwhelming in this Test series. Virat Kohli has looked comfortable against the spinners, though he has yet to be able to convert his starts into decisive scores. The lower order’s brilliance has managed to mask the lack of production from the top and middle order, but the pitch in Indore has yet to provide any relief. This was evidenced by India’s poor batting display in the match.
