India captain Rohit Sharma is not ready to write off No 1 ranked Australia just yet, despite the visiting team subsiding to an innings-and-132-run defeat in the first Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, but the signs are strong enough to suggest that the home side is not going to be seriously challenged in the remaining three fixtures.
Rohit knows all too well that a turnaround from a chastening loss in overseas conditions is possible, for it was two years ago that a severely depleted Indian team rallied from 36 all out in Adelaide to leave Australia with the BGT in their hands after an unprecedented victory in Brisbane to give them the series 2-1.
But somehow, one gets the feeling that the confidence with which this Australian side landed in India chasing a breakthrough series win has been dealt a massive blow.
In conditions suited entirely to India, Australia were outclassed inside three days of the Nagpur Test and now, facing the need for personnel changes and a serious dose of moral-booting, they need to up their game to a level not yet required since Pat Cummins took over the captaincy in 2021. To be thrashed by an innings and 132 runs, after conceding a lead of 223 and then to be bowled out for 91 on a turning track underlined the gulf that separates the two teams in this series.
The only thing that really went Australia’s way was the toss, but from the time Mohammed Siraj struck in his opening over it was the visitors playing catch-up. Barring a solid fightback from Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne that took the total from 2/2 to 74 for 2 on lunch on day one, and then a brief flurry of wickets to the debutant offspinner Todd Murphy, India were not put under enough pressure. Ravindra Jadeja, in his first match for six months, took seven wickets and scored a pivotal 70 off 185 deliveries. On a track on which Australia folded for 177 on day one, Rohit batted his way to a match-winning 120. Axar Patel, picked ahead of the in-form Kuldeep Yadav because of his batting, helped shove Australia out of the match on days two and three as he made his way to a career-best 84* from 174 balls. And the biggest figure looming over this series, Ravichandran Ashwin, snared eight wickets in the match including a crippling 5/37 to hasten Australia’s downfall on day three.
So then, how did the No 1 Test team slip to a record loss in two and a half days? First off, Australia picked the wrong 11 for Nagpur. Yes, there was no Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or Cameron Green but to go into the first Test of a series in India with only four bowlers was startling. One of them was a 22-year-old debutant in Murphy, another Scott Boland who had never played a Test outside Australia. On a track on which India played three frontline spinners, Australia left out the legspinner Mitch Swepson, who also featured in Pakistan and Sri Lanka last year, and did not pick the allrounder Ashton Agar. This meant a long tail in conditions where batting for time is imperative.
They also dropped the No 4 ranked batsman in Tests, Travis Head, who despite averaging 21 in Asia was still a good best for his run in this team, including the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2022, and for his handy spin. Forget beating India, the Australians did not pick an 11 that could compete with them. And worryingly, based on Cummins’ observations after the chastening Nagpur defeat, they do not look like making wholesale changes for the second Test starting on Friday.
Second, talk of the Nagpur Test having any demons in it or of being doctored, as segments of the Australian media labelled it, were bogus. India batted 139.3 overs to score 400, whereas Australia batted a combined 96.2 overs for totals of 177 and 91.
Third, the problems within this Australian team were evident before a ball was bowled, if you looked close enough. David Warner has a batting average of 22.16 from nine Test matches in India, with three fifties in 18 innings, and has never looked comfortable against Ashwin. Usman Khawaja had never played a Test in India and before being recalled in 2022, he averaged 31.45 from seven matches in Asia. As good as he was in amassing 633 runs across five Tests in Pakistan (where the pitches were flat) and Sri Lanka last year, Khawaja has not batted in such conditions and against three spinners of the skill of Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar.
Labuschagne is ranked No 1 in Tests, but has reached there on the basis of runs scored outside of Asia. He has much to work on in the next three Tests. Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb, the two batsmen preferred to Head for the Nagpur Tests, were playing in India for the first time since 2017. This was a no-contest, from many aspects.
India are up 1-0, needing to win the series by no less than 3-1 to make the final of the World Test Championship. Australia are down and depleted, but Cummins and his team can look at India’s similarly hopeless predicament in December 2020 after the ignominy of 36 all out for inspiration. That said, it is tough to shake the feeling that the BGT is headed distinctly in one team’s favour.
