Virat, Rohit's Batting Failure And...? 3 Reasons India Lost The BGT Vs Australia

Anurag Dasgupta

Blunders which led to India's loss [Source: AP Photos] Blunders which led to India's loss [Source: AP Photos]

So, the inevitable has happened and India has lost the Border-Gavaskar Series Vs Australia. This is the first time in 10 years that the Aussie have defeated India in a Test series. as the Indian dominance finally came to an end.

The team thrashed Australia in the first Test in Perth but since then it has been downhill as the Indian team failed to win a single contest and lost the Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Test to crash out of the WTC finale race.

There were many reasons for India's loss, and the blame should go to the batters for their inability to play the moving deliveries. However, there is a broader perspective to it and here are 3 reasons why India lost the BGT.

3) Failure of senior batters in the squad

Barring a century in the second innings of Perth Test, Virat Kohli had a horrendous Australian tour as the pacers exposed his weakness outside the off stump.

Interestingly, despite being a professional, Kohli failed to rectify the mistakes and repeated it time and again. Another senior batter, Rohit Sharma, followed Kohli's footsteps and became Pat Cummins' bunny.

If Kohli had the outside the off stump weakness, the Australian pacers exploited Rohit's inability to tackle the in-swingers. As a result of his poor show, captain Rohit opted out of the SCG Test.

2) No support for Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah was the lone warrior for India in the BGT Vs Australia. The star pacer had a remarkable tour as he picked up 32 wickets but the over-reliance on him led to a back spasm as the bowler missed the majority of the SCG Test match.

The team had no Plan B as Bumrah was their only plan and it backfired on the side. Mohammed Siraj somewhat lend a helping hand, but Akash Deep wasn't effective on these pitches and Harshit Rana, too, lacked the discipline to trouble the Aussie batters.

With just one quality pacer in the side, India were never going to beat the Australian side.

3) Selection decisions which led to the demise

In the Pink-Ball Test match, Akash Deep would have been a better option since he was better under lights. However, the captain went ahead with Harshit Rana who lacked the cutting edge to deliver.

Similarly, for the SCG Test, there was no need for two spinners in Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja. India either could have gone in with an extra pacer or should have gone in with an extra batter to protect their fragile top-6.

There was considerable grass on the surface to exploit, but India never had the right selection to take advantage of it.