The Mumbai deck was nothing out of the ordinary. There were no real demons either. And yet the Indian batters put up a display which has no rational explanation. The issues started at the top. Rohit Sharma can never bring his white-ball approach to Test cricket and be successful. This is a very different format and the captain has to trust his defence, which he isn’t at the moment. The result was the most ordinary shot of all, with a fielder placed exactly for such a mistake.
Shubman Gill, one of the better players for India in the series, played for the turn to only see his stumps shattered. Virat Kohli, much like Rohit, is battling demons in the mind and never looked confident. India’s big two have really looked ordinary in the series, tallying 93 and 91, and it’s perfectly justified that questions are being asked. Be it the first-innings run-out or the second-innings shot, Kohli has, like Rohit, looked completely out of sorts.
Then comes Sarfaraz Khan. Much was said about why he wasn’t being given an opportunity. Why he wasn’t preferred to KL Rahul. After the big hundred in Bengaluru, Sarfaraz has looked a fish out of water. He doesn’t know what shot to play and is clearly lacking confidence. He was exposed against the second new ball in Bengaluru and has since been fragile against spin as well. No way does he make the Indian batting unit in Australia. In fact, there is a case for keeping Sai Sudharsan back from the India A tour to fill a middle-order batting slot.
As long as Rishabh Pant was at the crease, there was hope for India, but his controversial dismissal changed the entire complexion of the match.
✍???? @VTrips_7781 #Pant #jadeja #IndvsNz #INDvNZ https://t.co/08mBl6j9QB
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) November 3, 2024
With a top order so brittle, India’s red-ball cricket is entering a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it. Just Yashasvi Jaiswal and, of course, Rishabh Pant can’t win you a Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and the transition phase has well and truly begun. India don’t play spin well. Neither do they excel against the moving ball. All most of the batters can do is hit through the line in white-ball cricket, and that could mean the next 10 Test matches – five in Australia and five in England in 2025 – could inflict a lot of pain on Indian cricket fans.
The really sad story is the lack of application. All India needed to do was dig in. Just play ugly and not give up. Hitting a full toss to Rachin Ravindra off Ajaz Patel, as Sarfaraz did, was the story of India’s batting in this series – substandard and mentally scarred.
Gautam Gambhir, the coach, was known for his grit. Not the most talented, he never shied away from a fight. That’s what his boys are lacking. They don’t look like Test cricketers, and that is the unfortunate reality of Indian cricket at the moment. How Gambhir tries to turn things around will be interesting to see, for otherwise, his coaching stint could well be a disaster.
The 46 all out in Bengaluru wasn’t an aberration. The 150 all out in Pune was the norm. India are no longer the best batting side, and that’s a grim reality. White-ball knocks or IPL efforts can’t mask these deficiencies, and that’s when you wonder why India did not pick Cheteshwar Pujara for Australia. Over the next few days, India’s batters need to get hold of themselves mentally, for otherwise, Perth on November 22 could be another disaster waiting to happen.