Having twice conquered Australia in Test series Down Under since 2018, Team India surrendered meekly going down 3-1 and so dropping out of contention for the World Test Championship final of 2025, which will now be played between defending champion Australia and first-time finalist South Africa.
In another eventful series, the underwhelming Indian performance was marked by plenty of controversy, much hand wringing in melodramatic style over dropping the captain Rohit Sharma because of his extended run of poor form and a tactically febrile show by Team India and its management in the choice of playing XI, quixotic batting order changes and the preference of bits-and-pieces men over Test specialists.
There were opportunities galore for Team India to beat an Australian team that was far from the one in imposing form that had beaten India in 2023 for the title. However, it was Team India that was to blame for not striking the hammer blows when on top, with the senior batters Virat Kohli, save for one century, and Rohit Sharma flopping.
Team India was a virtual one-man army with the peerless fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah (32 wickets at an astonishing average of 13.06 runs per wicket) rattling the Aussies time and again. Unfortunately, his body was unable to cope with the workload and he broke down with a bad back in the series decider in Sydney when the Test was still up for grabs on a juicy pitch designer-built for a result by Australia that was seeking to ensure qualifying for the WTC final.
Young players like Yashasvi Jaiswal as well as the seasoned K.L. Rahul did come up with the odd performance displaying Test match temperament, but none was consistent enough to produce the runs under pressure against a competent Australian pace attack in which Scott Boland who is just the reserve quick nonetheless went on to snare Indian batters with consistency of line and length.
The greatest disappointment was that of Kohli who even managed to fall below his own standards of a snarling on-field presence with a shoulder charge on debutant Sam Konstas and was lucky to get away with just a fine for physical contact of an opponent in cricket. It is time they sent him packing from the Test team as much for his failures as his obnoxious behaviour.
The time to rebuild the Test team by promoting youngsters and giving them sustained chances and preparing good cricket pitches for home Tests has come. A fresh squad of players under a young and inspiring captain like Bumrah is called for. This old cabal of players has let the national team down thrice in Test championship cycles.
