There were to be no heroics from Rishabh Pant and the tail on the third morning at Adelaide Oval. Once Pant fell in the first over of the day, the end was nigh. Having lost the first Test at Perth by a whopping 295 runs, Australia went on to win the Test by a crushing 10 wickets margin to level the series. The Baggy Greens also gained considerable psychological advantage before the third Test at Brisbane starting in less than a week.
The victory has also allowed Australia to regain the top spot in the WTC rankings. India have been pushed down to no.3 with South Africa now no.2.
Before the series started, India needed to win 4-0 to qualify for the WTC final directly. Perth provided a fantastic start to that quest. But the stumble in the second Test could leave India at the mercy of other teams to make the cut for the WTC final at Lord’s in mid-2025.
While the bowling, spearheaded by the magnificent Jasprit Bumrah and supported very well by the large-hearted Mohamed Siraj was impressive again, batting collapses in both innings let India down.
From the first ball to the last, Australia were in control of the match. An early stutter to their innings was turned around by a superb counter-attacking century by Travis Head, who has been a thorn in India’s flesh in the past couple of years.
There was none to emulate Head from the Indian batting. The only batter to impress was rookie Nitish Kumar Reddy who struck two impressive 40-plus scores.
Rohit Sharma’s decision to bat in the middle order yielded no dividends. A fine century at Perth had suggested that Virat Kohli’s protracted lean trot had ended. But at Adelaide, he too flopped in both innings.
The continued failures of Rohit and Virat make the batting vulnerable which in turn puts the team under enormous duress.
After the Perth win, India looked to have a problem of plenty. After the Adelaide debacle, they are now confronted with plenty of problems.