1) Lack of runs from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are two of India’s most reliable batters, but they had a dismal outing with the bat. Rohit was struggling to keep his consistency throughout the series, as he failed to score important runs, which resulted in a lot of pressure building up on the middle-order.
Kohli being one of India’s best-ever players in test cricket, failed to post big numbers. He secured a century in Perth, but was not well with the bat after that. Him not being able to score on the Australian pitch left a massive hole in India’s batting lineup.

2) Absence of a solid third seamer

India’s pace attack was led by Jasprit Bumrah, and was supposed to be one of the strongest part of the team. However, there not being a reliable third seamer came out as a significant disadvantage. Though Bumrah came out of the series as the leading wicket-taker, the other bowlers could not manage to take wickets at a regular intervals, which caused Indian bowlers to not build enough pressure on their opponents.

3) Depending too much on Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah is a veteran pacer in the Indian team and has a lot of expertise. He came out of the series as the highest wicket-taker, as he had claimed 32 wickets in the series at an average of 13.06. Bumrah had a series which would be remembered, especially since the fact that other bowlers could not even manage to come close to his mark. Though Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja helped in taking some wickets, the team depended too much on Bumrah to make crucial breakthroughs, which caused a significant pressure being built on him.

4) Lack of aggression on the field

Aggression in terms of both physical gestures and strategy is crucial when facing Australia, and Indian team has had a history of going to the moon and back if it comes to being aggressive on the field and performing harshly. But at certain points of the series, the lack of aggression was clearly visible. Be it in their approach with the batting lineup, or be it their bowling attack, Indian team was lacking the energy required to put pressure on Australian team which led to a loss in their momentum.

5) Batters collapsed under pressure

The biggest flaw for India through the whole series was the batters not being able to deal with the pressure at crucial moments of the match. Batting stars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Shubman Gill could not manage to perform well in matches. The team failed to reach 200 runs in critical matches.

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India had set a total target of 162 for Australia, which might have been a tricky situation for Australians if the stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah had been in a position to bowl. However, he faced back pain, which led him to leave the ground on Day 2 and not participate on 3rd Day of the match.

Bumrah was awarded as the Player of the Series honour, which was because his milestone of being the highest wicket-taker in the series, claiming 32 wickets, but this was hardly a compensation for the messy team performance by the Indian players.

Prasidh Krishna (3/65), and Mohammed Siraj (1/69) were not of help to Bumrah, and despite multiple crucial wickets, bowled more than enough bad deliveries for the hosts to win the match in just 27 overs.

Scott Boland (6/45) and Pat Cummins (3/44) cleaned off India’s lower-order for justt 157 runs. If we remove the 61-run knock of Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 22-run knock, the rest of the whole team collectively scored just 72 runs.

Brief Scores:

India’s 1st innings: 185
Australia’s 1st innings: 181
India’s 2nd innings: 157
Australia’s 2nd innings: 162

The post Australia ruthlessly beat India 3-1 in Border-Gavaskar Trophy and secured their spot in the World Test Championship Final appeared first on Cricket Country.

On January 4, Bumrah and Pant worked together and got the upper hand on Marnus Labuschagne, But before the day’s play, Pant was questioned how it felt while keeping the wickets to Bumrah’s bowling, to which the keeper had a brilliant answer.

“Oh, man! It is pretty difficult because of the kind of angles he creates, sometimes you have to move to one side a bit quicker and when the edges come on the other side, you just have to manage. It is quite difficult but part of the job I would say,” Pant said while speaking on 7Cricket.

Justin Langer asked Rishabh Pant what it's like to keep to Jasprit Bumrah.

Rishabh: "Oh man…"

😅 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/WGHflHLK0l

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 3, 2025

Coming to the match, India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and decided to bat first. The visitors managed to score 185 runs before Australian bowlers wrapped up their innings. Rishabh Pant was the highest run-scorer for India as he scored 40 runs.

Australian innings began on Day 1 of the Test, where they played three overs and lost the wicket of Usman Khawaja. The second Day saw the fall of Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head in the first session. By the time it was lunch time, Australia was at 101 runs on the loss of 5 wickets. KL Rahul was the best fielder in the first session, as he took three catches within the four wickets which got taken.

The post WATCH: Rishabh Pant’s views on keeping the wickets for Jasprit Bumrah will leave you Shocked appeared first on Cricket Country.

In a conversation with Star Sports, Rohit was asked to share his thought and views behind making this decision, to which he opened up and shared that he had a conversation with selectors regarding him not being in form and being unable to score runs.

“I stood down that is what I would say. The chat that I had with the coach and selector, was very simple that I was not able to score runs with the bat. I am not in form. This is an important match, we needed a win. We couldn’t carry many out of form players. They backed my decision, which was difficult for me to take,” he said on Star Sports.

Rohit also cleared air regarding him giving this decision some thought for a period of time, but could not convey his wish since it was New Year after the Melbourne Test came to an end. The Indian skipper also mentioned how it was important for him to step aside instead of having another failure in the final match of the series.

“The thought process was going for quite some time. The decision was taken after coming here. After Melbourne there was New Years’s day. On that day, I did not want to tell the coach and selector about this. I was trying but could not score and it was important for me step aside from this match,” he added.

“I don’t believe in what happens five months later. I want to focus on the present. This decision is not retirement decision. I am not going to move away from the game,” he said.

Coming to the match, India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and decided to bat first. The visitors managed to score 185 runs before Australian bowlers wrapped up their innings. Rishabh Pant was the highest run-scorer for India as he scored 40 runs.

Australian innings began on Day 1 of the Test, where they played three overs and lost the wicket of Usman Khawaja. The second Day saw the fall of Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head in the first session. By the time it was lunch time, Australia was at 101 runs on the loss of 5 wickets. KL Rahul was the best fielder in the first session, as he took three catches within the four wickets which got taken.

The post ‘I was not able to…’: Rohit Sharma breaks Speculations about retirement from Test cricket after ‘Resting’ from Sydney Test appeared first on Cricket Country.

According to reports, Rohit Sharma is not going to be involved in the fifth and final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25, as vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah will take the lead for the match. Jasprit Bumrah had previously captained Indian team in the series opener in Perth, where the team registered a 295-run victory.

Now, according to a report by India Today, Rohit might have played his last Test match in Melbourne, and might never play in the red-ball format again.
“The fourth Test in Melbourne may well have been Rohit’s last in Test cricket. Unless the BCCI intervenes and requests him to play one final time, the decision is unlikely to change,” a source told India Today.

Rohit Sharma has had a hard time batting. He was not present for the first Test in Perth due to the birth of his second child, and then had demoted himself to the sixth spot in the batting order. However, this has not helped the skipper in any way whatsoever as his struggle with the bat has been clearly evident.

Rohit announced his retirement from white-ball format after India won the 2024 T20 World Cup earlier this year and ended their long trophy-drought. It now remains to be seen when will Rohit announce his time from the red-ball format, especially since he is likely to lead India in the much-awaited ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

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Between reports of unrest in the dressing room, Gambhir tried to end the rumours by claiming that they were just reports and not the truth. The reports were suggesting that after the defeat in Melbourne, Indian dressing room has gone into chaos as Gambhir has been fed-up with the recent below-par performances.

The reports also suggested that head coach also wanted veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara to be in the team, but this request got turned down by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee.

“Debates between coach and player should remain in the dressing room. Stern words. They were just reports, not truth,” Gambhir said while speaking in the pre-match press conference.

“Indian cricket will be in safe hands till honest people stay in the dressing room. The only thing that keeps you in the dressing room is performance,” Gambhir added.

Reports also suggested that some issues have been noticed with a senior player going to project himself as an option to replace Rohit as a captain. India will now face Australia for the fifth and final Test of the ongoing series in Sydney from January 3.

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Gambhir stated that a decision on the playing XI will be made after taking a look on the pitch. This is an eerie reply as the name of the skipper is the first thing that is given on the playing XI. Since Gambhir has officially not confirmed Rohit’s name in the playing XI, all sorts of speculations are coming out.

Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami took to his social media and has pitched the idea of Shubman Gill leading the team for the match in Sydney.

Going by a particular visual , gill to lead 🇮🇳 in Sydney test ? So India already looking ahead to the next WTC cycle .This will be interesting . #BorderGavaskarTrophy

— Shreevats goswami (@shreevats1) January 2, 2025

Rohit is struggling in the batting department as his team is 2-1 down in the five-match Test series. He was not a part of Indian team when they registered a 295-run victory in the series opener in Perth. From the second Test onwards, he has only managed to score 31 runs.

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