Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra opened up on India’s batting woes in the Border-Gavaskar trophy against Australia, which India lost by 3-1 after suffering a six-wicket loss at the SCG on Sunday. Indian batters failed to deliver consistently throughout the series and it led to the team’s downfall in the Australian conditions.
Veteran batters – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma – could not regain their form whereas Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill also could not play according to lofty expectations. Kohli scored 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75 whereas Rohit could only gather 31 runs in five innings at an average of 6.20.
Pant, who had a fantastic record against Australia before this series, could only accumulate 255 runs in nine innings at an average of 28.33. Gill, on the other hand, could only aggregate 93 runs in five innings at an average of 18.60.
“There were four pillars for the building we were trying to build – Rohit, Kohli, Shubman and Pant because Yashasvi Jaiswal had gone for the first time, KL Rahul was dropped in the previous series and no one knew what Nitish Kumar Reddy would do. All four pillars have not done anything of note,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
The renowned commentator highlighted how Virat Kohli struggled throughout the series barring his century at Perth.
“If we talk about Virat Kohli, he scored a century in Perth’s second innings when the score was 275/2. It seemed like King Kohli, the old avatar, was back. After that, he had one score of 36 and there was nothing else. He kept getting out the same way. It just did not work out. So many times outside off,” Chopra observed.
Speaking on Rohit Sharma’s performances, the former Delhi player said it was not enough from the Indian captain.
“Rohit Sharma, who played five knocks, scored 31 runs in total. That’s not enough. You even opened two innings in that. When you went up, not only the batting order, but the entire team had to be changed. So that did not work at all,” he said.
Chopra also slammed Shubman Gill for his shot selection in the Sydney Test.
“Shubman Gill was looking decent when he was playing and then you dropped him. Then the two shots he played in the last match, it’s unbecoming of him. We all thought this would be the watershed event of his career,” Chopra observed.
Chopra noted that barring last match of the series, Rishabh Pant’s performance was also not up to the mark.
“If you leave the last match, you will have to include Pant as well as there were a lot of expectations from him. Rishabh Pant’s performance in the last match was incredible for sure, he scored more than 100 runs, including both innings, but the four pillars haven’t really managed anything,” he stated.
After losing the BGT against Australia, India have been knocked out of the WTC 2023-25 cycle.
