This article will discuss Team India’s tame surrender down under and Australia winning the five-test series, Border Gavaskar Trophy 3-1.

With this series loss, India is now out of the World Test Championship Finals.

South Africa and the defending champion Australia will play for the Test mace.

With the recent series loss against the Kiwis at home, Team India was playing catch up, on a sticky wicket and under tremendous pressure to not only retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy but also win the series convincingly to have any chance in the race for a third World Test Championship berth.

Going down 1-3 in the Border Gavaskar Series meant that for the first time since the 2015 series, India failed to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Reason for the Border Gavaskar Trophy Loss

In Short

• Australia won the 5-match series 3-1.
• Australia won their first Border Gavaskar Trophy in 10 years.
• India had to just draw the series to retain the Trophy in India.

After a decade of dominance, the Indian team finally surrendered to a motivated Australian Team.

Pat Cummins, is now the most successful captain in the modern era.

With the Sydney loss in the fifth and final test by 6 wickets, India had only themselves to blame.

A series loss always allows teams to introspect and make changes and corrections to improve for future challenges. However, India erred in not taking timely calls when the writing was clearly on the wall with some repetitive errors and an unexpected home series whitewash.

Glaring flaws, spoken but never addressed

From team selections to strategies adopted, to the constant change in the playing eleven and, an out-of-form batting/bowling lineup, Indian cricket had its share of flaws.

When the reasons for correction are swept under the carpet and the team not being innovative, it becomes the reason for the downfall

An out of form Batting lineup

India had a horrid time at home against the Kiwis, and the batting was completely exposed both in spin and seam conditions. No major changes were made and the think tank continued to back consistent nonperformers in the squad.

The Indian batting crossed the 300-run mark just once out of the nine innings in Australia. The lack of score on the board meant that bowlers were put under tremendous pressure.

No Match Practice Scheduled

Practice matches allow players to get acclimatized to foreign conditions. They allow players to have some much-needed match stimuli before the start of a major series.

Practice matches also allow bench players to be looked into if they are able to adapt to alien conditions. The newcomers in the team like Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, and Eeshwaran would have benefited in practice games.

The Indian team were in Australia for 55 days for a 5-match series. Why was the practice match not scheduled?

The lack of match practice for the young bench allowed senior cricketers to retain their position in the playing eleven even after repeated failures.

Family traveling with players

BCCI allows families to travel along with players. This hampers the additional practice sessions the players would get otherwise. This could also be the reason why practice matches are not scheduled allowing players to spend additional time with family.

Why the need to change a winning combination for the second test?

After an impressive win in the first test in Perth under Jasprit Bumrah, why did India not maintain the winning combination?

With Rohit Sharma unavailable for the first test for personal reasons, the selection team could have rewarded the playing eleven to play the second test unchanged. This would have boasted the confidence of the team who put the team ahead in the five-match series.

Rohit Sharma could have made himself available, if need be, in the Tests to follow.

Team Selection

India’s success in the last tours to Australia, had to be their bowling attack. All bowlers were specialists in the team who could also contribute.

Team India went in with only 3 specialist seamers with only Jasprit Bumrah a genuine wicket-taking option.

To bolster the batting lineup two to three all-rounders were forced into the playing eleven. Was that the right decision in Australia?

Constant chopping and changing hurt dressing room atmosphere

After the first test win, India never played the same playing eleven in the remainder of the series.

In the middle of the tour, Ravichandran Ashwin, one of the best bowling all-rounders in the modern era, announced his retirement as he knew he would not be considered for the remainder of the series. This also proved that not all was right in the dressing room.

Lack of form of Senior Batsmen

The most alarming reason for the loss was the lack of form of India’s two stalwarts, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Virat Kohli has been in poor form for the past 5 years with an average of under 30. Any other player in the Indian team would have lost his place in the squad with those numbers.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were also (rightly) dropped due to poor form, but Virat was spared the axe then.

This also proved that Virat Kohli though being on borrowed time due to his poor form, was backed by BCCI and probably by the PR-driven brand value of Virat Kohli.

Rohit Sharma’s form evaded him in the series and his inclusion into the second, third, and fourth Test did more harm than add value to the team. The entire batting order was shaken up to accommodate a player.

Jasprit Bumrah – Player of the Series

Jasprit Bumrah once again proved, why he is considered the best bowler in the modern era.

Unfortunately, while the maverick bowler did all that he could do, the lack of support from the other end proved to be very costly for Team India in the series loss.

Jasprit Bumrah delivered the best-ever performance by an Indian bowler in a Test series in Australia with 32 wickets at an average of 13.06 with three five-wicket hauls.

He was adjudged Player of the Series despite India ending up on the losing side.

Mohammed Siraj with his experience with the Indian team had a poor series and is going through a lean patch. While he picked up 20 wickets, he was not economical, and runs leaked at his end.

Other bowlers including the all-rounders picked in the side did not deserve a place in the Indian team.

India desperately missed Mohammed Shami, who could have made a difference and given Jasprit Bumrah the much-needed support.

Rohit Sharma’s Captaincy

Struggling for runs, Rohit’s captaincy also looked poor. His decisions raised quite a few eyebrows. No efforts were being put on the field to dominate the game when India had Aussies on the mat on a couple of occasions.

Captaincy was very defensive and when India had to keep the run rate down or a partnership was getting built, Indian bowlers leaked runs. Rohit played the waiting game for Aussies to make a mistake.

Playing eleven

Indian captain and the coaching staff erred in team selection with their lack of understanding of pitch conditions.

Two spinners in the playing eleven in Australia were never heard of. India could have just seen their opponent’s team composition before taking the final eleven call. This showed a lack of cricketing sense and awareness.

From our Readers

We at SuperSports, do value our readers’ feedback and comments. We have compiled some of their opinions on India’s performance.

Preyas Kulkarni- Corporate Executive

“My view is our batsmen should have adopted the strategy Pant adopted in 2nd innings, that is to take on the bowlers instead of playing a test match innings which they struggled to do. Also,  

our batters were not in form. We changed our lineup unnecessarily to accommodate Rohit and an overrated Shubman Gill which also unsettled the batting”.

Dipen Babla- Businessman

“Bowlers were ineffective except for Jasprit Bumrah which made the bowling look mediocre”.

Vivek Gaidhani – Consultant

“Rohit and Virat did not want to/were unable to correct their mistakes and improve their form. Jadeja was a shadow of his past and an ineffective bowler. Gill is highly overrated and yet to be tested on foreign soil.

Over-relying on Mohammed Siraj and not trying alternatives like Prasidh Krishna proved to be a disaster.

Coach has to take the blame”.

Nilesh Dadpe – Corporate Executive

“Our selection process and performance yardstick need to change. Else, we will never be able to win overseas tours except in West Indies and SriLanka. 

Indian batsmen shine in Indian conditions on flat tracks though technically imperfect. Even allrounders rule the roost.

Why did India play 3 all-rounders? Why a different yardstick for Virat Kohli?

Groom proper batsmen/bowlers and not its and bits players for Test Cricket”.

Aditya Paradkar – Businessman

“Players looked lethargic. They did not look involved in the game. No strategy was put up and actions all looked premeditated. Player selection was not as per the conditions. One Word “Over Confidence”

SuperSports View

Emotions are bound to explode when expectations and hopes are not met. BCCI and the selection panel need to seriously introspect the enormity of the Test Series loss both against New Zealand at home and in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Players should now be groomed and prepared for the next World Test Championship cycle and players who are expected to play in 2026-27 season should get selected for the Test team going forward.

No player should be above the game and only deserving players should be part of the team, purely on merit and current form.

The Super Star Culture needs to end.