India faced a shocking defeat against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as the Aussies took 3-1 lead and made sure they cliched the series ending their 10-year long wait. India’s performance has been underwhelming throughout the series, it was only in Perth that India won by 295-runs and gave everyone hope after such a majestic start.
Instability In India’s Playing XI
The dream turned into nightmare in the second Test and after that everything went downhill for Rohit Sharma and co. But what was the main problem behind India’s constant struggle in BGT. The main reason behind India’s constant struggle was not finding the stable XI, team India was seen making changes whether it was with the pacers, spinners or the batting order.
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Frequent Changes In Bowling Attack
There were constant changes in the spin department with the 1st Test given to Washington Sundar, 2nd to Ravichandran Ashwin and 3rd to Ravindra Jadeja which clearly showed India was trying and testing combinations. In 3rd and 4th Test Akashdeep played instead of Harshit Rana. India could not decide a proper bowling attack which involved less changes.
Over-Reliance On Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah turned out to be India’s stand-out bowler which all the other had an average run, Bumrah stood out and picked 32 wickets in the whole tournament. There was complete over-reliance on Bumrah and it was clearly visible in the 5th Test when Bumrah didn’t bowl India struggled to dominate the Aussie batters and eventually lost.
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Changes In Batting Lineup
During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy India’s batting lineup kept on changing Rohit Sharma was not available in the first Test so Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul opened and when Rohit came back he shifted his position to 6th which turned out to be a disaster. Then he again shifted his position and opened in 4th Test but it again didn’t work. Nitish Reddy was could’ve batted above but he was made to play even after Ravindra Jadeja. India’s batting seemed completely confused and mismanaged.
Players Like Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel Had To Sit Out
It was quite unexpected to see that extra-ordinary players like Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel were made to sit out and not given a single chance. Both Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel came in with great form but it was not utilized once. Sarfaraz Khan had a great potential to do wonders but he was not included in the playing XI.
