New Delhi: Australia maintained their dominant run in pink-ball Tests with a thumping 10-wicket victory against India in the 2nd Test at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide on Sunday. Under immense pressure after their crushing 295-run defeat in the series opener in Perth, Australia responded strongly with a dominant performance to level the five-match series 1-1 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
After Mitchell Starc ran riot with a six-fer during India’s first innings, Aussie skipper Pat Cummins joined the party with a five-wicket haul during the visitors’ second innings on Sunday as they were bowled out for 175, managing a slender lead of 18 runs. Australia chased down the target of 19 runs without breaking a sweat to wrap up a comfortable victory with 10 wickets to spare.
It was the shortest-ever Test match between India and Australia in terms of balls bowled as Australia managed to register a dominant victory in the first session on Day 3. India’s abject surrender with the bat across their two innings and the bowlers’ failure to create any sort of pressure when Travis Head was going all guns blazing led to a humiliating defeat for the visitors in Adelaide.
3 reasons behind India’s 10-wicket defeat in Adelaide Test:
1) Batting failures in both innings
It was a story of two abject batting failures from India in the Test match as none of the premier batters, including the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were able to deliver for the visitors. Both batters looked past their best managing only 27 runs between thems in the two innings combined. Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul failed to fire at the top while Shubman Gill looked far from convincing against the moving pink ball.
Rishabh Pant also failed to turn up under pressure and was not able to produce an impactful knock under pressure as India’s batting was a complete no-show in the Test match. Nitish Reddy was the only silver lining for India in an abysmal batting display otherwise with fighting knocks in both innings. Indian batters will have to step up and deliver if India are to fancy their chances of making a comeback and winning the series.
2) Lack of bowling partner for Jasprit Bumrah
After his stellar display in the 1st Test in Perth where he set up India’s 295-run victory with his bowling heroics, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah continued his fine form in the 2nd Test in Adelaide. Bumrah bowled his heart out once again but failed to find enough support from the other end as his potent spells were not enough to trouble Australia.
Bumrah got India two quick wickets at the start of Day 2’s play before the visitors threw the momentum away as centurion Travis Head took the game away from them. Bumrah ended up finishing with a 4-wicket haul while Mohammed Siraj too bagged 4 wickets in Australia’s 1st innings. However, it was far from a combined effort from the Indian pacers.
3) Abysmal captaincy
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy once again came under the scanner during the Adelaide Test as a number of his decisions raised questions. Fans and experts were left baffled by Rohit’s lack of awareness on the field as he was far from practice with his bowling changes and let Australia off the hook on many occasions. He looked completely clueless when Head was going all guns blazing and failed to marshal his troops.
Rohit took Bumrah off his spell after only 4 overs in the first session on Day 2 and was late in bringing R Ashwin against Head. He was also slammed for persisting with pacer Harshit Rana despite him leaking runs aplenty against Head. Rohit’s poor leadership has raised concerns regarding India’s chances in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Rohit Sharma-led India suffered a crushing 10-wicket defeat in the 2nd Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday. Here is a look at three reasons behind India’s humiliating loss. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
