Australia vs India 2018-19: 3 factors that contributed to India’s defeat at Perth
Cricket is a leveler. Just a few days back, everyone was praising how well India played at Adelaide to secure a 31-run victory and go 1-0 up in a series down-under, which has not happened earlier. There were a lot of positives to take from a convincing performance that got the better of the hosts.
Everyone expected Australia to bounce back and they most certainly did so. On a drop-in pitch at the Optus Stadium, Perth the hosts went in with an unchanged side from the one that lost in the first game. They put on a complete team performance with everyone chipping in at regular intervals.
India were dealt with two injury blows ahead of the second test- Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin were out and Hanuma Vihari and Umesh Yadav came into their place.
On a pitch which had an unknown element to it, what with this being the first ever test match to be played in the new stadium at Perth. (The iconic WACA ground is no longer in use).
Keeping this in mind, India could have certainly come in better prepared and certainly some performances and selections can be questioned which led to their 146-run defeat.
But what can’t be questioned was the individual brilliance of Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami who were stand out performers for India on a very tricky, devious pitch.
But since cricket, especially test cricket is not only about individual performances and relies more on the team coming together, India fell well short against a rampant Australian side.
Here’s digging in deep and finding out the factors that contributed to India’s defeat at Perth which leaves the series at 1-1 with the next test match starting on 26th December 2018 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG).
#3 The performances of both the openers has been abysmal
It is imperative that the openers in a Test match play a crucial and important role. Not only do they play out the new ball and soften the ball, but they also set up the innings for the middle-order batsmen to build on.
For India, this series has seen both their openers struggling and looking terribly out of sorts.
Prior to the test series down-under, India tried youngster Prithvi Shaw as their opener against the Windies at home and it seemed that he could grab the openers spot on this tour.
But an ankle injury in the lead up to the first test match ended Prithvi Shaw’s series as he had to be sent home to recover from his injury.
So, despite two atrocious performances where both KL Rahul and Murali Vijay looked completely out of confidence and were almost walking wickets in the way they batted, they continued to play at Perth.
Partly because there were no replacement openers and partly because of Virat Kohli’s obstinacy to try out something different was the reason for this.
Sunil Gavaskar in the post-match show on Sony Six went on to say that the injury management could have been much better.
If they knew Prithvi Shaw won't be fit for the full series, why didn't they fly in his replacement earlier? Also, he felt KL Rahul should be sent to India and asked to play in the Ranji trophy to revive his test career.
And not too surprisingly, KL Rahul fell rather cheaply in both innings at Perth and Murali Vijay looked reasonably set before Nathan Lyon dislodged his stumps. The question to be asked is couldn’t the team management tinker with the batting order? Did their rigid approach cost them a test match?
The attacking Rishabh Pant could have been pushed up the order, Cheteshwar Pujara could have opened rather than bat at No. 3.
The point is when both your openers are struggling for form and lack self-confidence and belief, the right thing to do is to leave them out of the side and play around with the other options available in the squad.
The nature of dismissals and the very fact that Virat Kohli came in before the 10th over in both the innings speaks for itself- India desperately requires an opening partnership to stay in for some period.