Team India, led by Rohit Sharma, was absolutely beaten by the Australians in the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test. In the first innings, the visitors, led by Steve Smith, bowled exceptionally well to dismiss India for just 109.
On a pitch that was behaving badly, Australia scored 197 runs in the second innings to take a huge lead of 88 runs. India’s second innings performance was poor once more, as they only managed 163 runs. Australia won the series for the first time after reaching their target of 76 runs in the final innings with 9 wickets remaining.
Despite the fact that India still holds a 2-1 series lead, there are numerous issues that need to be resolved before the fourth Test in Ahmedabad.
Three issues that India must address before the final game are listed below.
#1 Batting
Indian batsmen’s poor performances have now become a common occurrence. Aside from the first innings in Nagpur, the series has been quiet for captain Rohit Sharma. Shubman Gill, who supplanted the in a bad way KL Rahul, likewise neglected to score a score of substance in Indore. In the series, Cheteshwar Pujara has only scored one fifty, while Virat Kohli has not scored even one.
In both domestic and international competition, India’s batters have consistently failed. It was the aggregate disappointment of the batting bunch that let India down in the Indore Test match. The lower order’s contributions and the brilliance of the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja may have disguised the batting group in the first two tests.
India also won the first two tests because the batters weren’t asked enough questions. However, for India to win the series, the batters must take the initiative in the fourth Test and perform well.
#2 Pitch
The Indians prepared a pitch that offered a turn from the first session on Day 1, but the decision was disastrous, as the Indians were bowled out for 109 on the first day. The fact that Usman Khawaja’s highest individual score during the game was 60 demonstrated that the pitch did not really provide a healthy balance between bat and ball.
India must exercise caution when selecting a pitch for the Ahmedabad match because the one in Indore was not ideal. The ICC gave the surface a rating of “poor” and gave it three demerit points.
#3 DRS calls
During the third Test match, the third umpire overturned numerous on-field decisions. To be fair to the umpires, the surface played a variety of tricks, making it not the easiest game to officiate. To ensure that the right choice is made, the DRS is present. However, India’s recent DRS calls have not been particularly successful, with a very low success rate.
Even in the third Test, India’s poor judgment was evident when they destroyed all of their reviews in the 45th over of the innings. India unquestionably need to get better at this to guarantee that they don’t squander audits as that can torment the group later.