India’s defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia after 10 years was a collective effort. If Jasprit Bumrah was the lone positive light with 32 wickets in the series, a fragile Indian batting order made the job easy for the Australians in the last four Test matches.
Having started with a win in Perth, the Indian team just surrendered every time they walked into bat in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The rain-hit third Test ended in a draw in Brisbane.
Former India captain and ex-BCCI president Sourav Ganguly reasoned India’s batting behind their loss Down Under. “We did not bat well, we have to bat well in Test cricket,” Ganguly told reporters in Kolkata.
“If you do not bat well, you will not win Test matches. If you score 170, 180, you cannot win Test matches. You have to score 350-400. No one can be blamed. Everyone has to score runs,” added the former skipper.
In the 10 innings in the BGT 2024-25, India were able to cross the 300-run mark only on two occasions. Although India managed three centuries in the series – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli and Nitish Kumar Reddy – in other occasions, the Indian batting went down heavily.
Baring the Perth ton, Kohli was dismissed while chasing the deliveries outside off-stump eight times out of nine innings. Kohli totalled a disappointing 190 runs in the series.
Another batting disappointment was India captain Rohit Sharma. The Indian captain missed the first Test due to the birth of his second child. In the next three Tests, Rohit managed just 31 runs before he himself ‘stood down’ from the fifth Test in Sydney.
With this loss, India’s hopes for a third consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final went up in smoke. After India 2-0 win over Bangladesh at home, India needed four wins out of their eight Tests to secure a place in the WTC final. However, India lost six Tests out of their last eight to throw themselves out of contention.
