IND vs AUS Test series: Australian team celebrates; India to ponder over several aspects

Australia wins Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India struggles with batting, Bumrah shines, selectors face tough decisions for future Test squad.

Late on Sunday night, Mitchell Starc and some of his teammates got into a sports utility vehicle and left the Sydney Cricket Ground. The celebrations in the Australian dressing room stretched long and spilled onto the turf. Some ambled near the ropes and a few went close to the pitch.

Reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a decade, the host has to thank the players who made this possible, and above all respect is owed to Pat Cummins. He bagged the wickets (25), scored vital runs (159), led well and Australia won by a 3-1 margin.

The Indians, meanwhile, had left the venue in the evening. They have enough to chew upon, grapple with and crease their foreheads. Commencing their tour with a 295-run victory in the first Test at Perth, the force was with them. The warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI at Canberra was pocketed too, before the campaign unravelled.

The Adelaide pink-ball Test was lost, and rain and the lower order secured a draw in Brisbane. And when R. Ashwin retired, the squad was in churn. The script turned morbid through a terrible last session and the Melbourne game was squandered. Finally at Sydney, even after snatching a four-run first innings lead, an inept second innings, despite Rishabh Pant’s fireworks, meant that Australia had an attainable target. An injured Jasprit Bumrah’s absence was a ghastly blow to India’s chances.

If one man had a large bearing on how India shaped up through this series, it was Bumrah, who also led in the first and fifth Test. His 32 wickets, till a back-spasm laid him low, meant that the Australian batters never felt they were fully settled at the crease. Every media interaction would involve a ‘Bumrah-question’ and the answers would range from shock to awe.

Among his support cast, Mohammed Siraj ran in all day. His effect may have varied but he has 20 wickets to show. The reality is if India capitulated eventually, a large share of the blame has to be apportioned to the batters. Skipper Rohit Sharma failed miserably, while Virat Kohli, after a ton at Perth, developed a fatal attraction around the off-stump. The former even skipped the last Test.

Meanwhile, with their bats, Yashasvi Jaiswal (391 runs), K.L. Rahul, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pant, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja, had their moments. However, these were sporadic. A youngster like Shubman Gill going through a drought is also a cause for worry.