Three Reasons Why India Lost The WTC Final Against Australia
Australia decimated India to win the WTC final [Source: AP]
On Sunday, Australia crushed India by a whopping 209-run margin to emerge victorious in the World Test Championship final. Thus, the Aussies became the first cricketing nation to add every ICC title to their glorious trophy cabinet.
Meanwhile, India continued their horrendous run in the ICC knockouts, losing their fourth consecutive final in ten years. As the ultimate Test has marked its conclusion, let's analyse and figure out what went wrong for Rohit Sharma and co. in this game.
Underwhelming bowling in 1st innings
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India were sub-par with the ball in the 1st innings [Source: AP]
India got the advantage of winning the toss and bowling first on the Oval's fresh surface, which offered significant seam movement to the seamers early on.
However, the Indian bowlers couldn't capitalise on the helpful conditions, as they kept the ball on the shorter side for the most part of the innings. This allowed the Australian batters to settle and post a massive first-innings total on the board.
Batters committed familiar mistakes
Virat Kohli got out while playing an expansive drive [Source: AP]
India's batting was more miserable than their bowling, as they failed to breach the 300-run mark on both occasions.
After their top order was rattled by the Australian pace battery, Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur stitched a fighting stand to help them avoid the follow-on in their first innings. However, they surrendered in the second innings, with the stalwarts committing familiar mistakes.
While Rohit Sharma threw yet another start, Virat Kohli got out by playing an expansive drive away from his body. Among others, Cheteshwar Pujara recorded twin failures, while Ravindra Jadeja managed only 48 runs across the game.
Poor on-field tactics and lack of preparation
Rohit Sharma had an ordinary outing as skipper [Source: AP]
Besides being toothless with the ball, India seemed clueless with their tactic when Travis Head and Steve Smith were cruising Australia to a gigantic first innings total.
As revealed by bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, skipper Rohit Sharma hesitated to use the body-line bowling against Head straightaway after the batter entered the middle. The lack of planning from the Indian captain proved costly for his side, as Head smashed a breathtaking 163 off just 174 deliveries.
Furthermore, the Indian team didn't seem prepared for this game, as they took time to assess the conditions. On the other hand, Australia adapted to the English conditions much quicker than their counterparts, eventually recording a clinical win in the ultimate Test.
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