As the dust settles on yet another brilliant Border-Gavaskar Test series that proved yet again why red-ball cricket is greatest and most sacred format of the game going around, I cannot help but think if something was amiss with this Indian team when they arrived on our shores.
This isn’t to take anything away from Australia – they deserve the highest praise as they played against arguably one of the strongest Indian men’s sides in recent history and were made to scrap and earn every win that came their way. However, as we unpack the inner workings and dynamics of this Indian team, I truly feel that something far deeper and sinister has permeated within Gautam Gambhir’s men well before the start of this Border-Gavaskar series which has caused them to play a brand of cricket that is far below the standard we know they’re capable of.
(Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
To me, the rot definitely began before this series. Coming off a 3-0 whitewash to New Zealand at home, many asked if India were demoralised or nervous upon arriving in Australia, as the Kiwis completed a Mission Impossible that no one expected of them.
Gambhir outrightly denied that wasn’t the case, but if we analyse some of those scorecards from that series, you’ll notice that India’s habit of being bundled out for low totals had already grown to be rather cancerous back then. In the first Test in Bengaluru they were rolled over for just 46, as pacers Matt Henry and Will O’Rourke ran amok claiming nine wickets between them on a surface traditionally catered for spinners.
The last two Tests of that series never saw India score more than 300 in any innings, and you just speculate that if they couldn’t get it done in their own backyard, would they truly be ready for the fight Australia was going to bring them here? Kohli’s batting form was still a concern back then, as the King averaged just 15.5 across all three Tests, with four single-digit scores and a scratchy 70 being his best effort against the plucky Kiwis. Prior to that was a two-Test series against neighbouring Bangladesh, and although India dominated and won both matches, Kohli never passed 50 in all four innings that he batted.
Virat Kohli. (Photo by Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Of course we know this whole Indian team is not just about Virat Kohli however in a weird way it kind of is. He may not have an official title as captain or vice-captain in this side anymore, but he still plays the main protagonist and antagonist role whenever he arrives in Australia.
Unfortunately, this time we received the worst of Kohli, both on and off the field, and I can’t help but decide if his generally poor attitude and inner frustrations with his own performance may have had a flow-on effect to the way the rest of his teammates played as well. Despite having done nothing overly outstanding in Test cricket for over five years, he remains the most influential and marketable Indian men’s cricketer of the modern era, and his teammates feed off his energy, no matter what polarity he is in.
The youngsters in the side look up to him, whilst senior players and coaching staff depend on him to set a standard, and this time around I feel like the Indian great was able to do neither. From arguing with journalists at Melbourne airport, to shoulder bumping and intimidating Sam Konstas, to gesticulating and aggravating Aussie crowds in the Sydney Test, you just wonder if Kohli’s apparent hunger for runs was superseded by other useless off-field drama that did nothing for his performances at the crease. Despite an inconsequential hundred in Perth, his final tally for this series almost mirrored what he produced back home against New Zealand – not much.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s shock retirement in the middle of this Border-Gavaskar Trophy also had me questioning why such a legend of the game would bow out when his team needed him the most at such a crucial point in the series. The legendary offspinner bid adieu to Test cricket at the conclusion of the third Test, with the series poised at one-apiece. Why would he do that? Did he pre-emptively know that his side was not going to win this series and wanted to depart before the carnage got worse? Ashwin has always been a great thinker of the game and is one of the most intellectual minds going around in cricket so this is definitely plausible.
The abruptness of Ashwin’s retirement reminds me of a similar one that occurred back in 2013/14 Ashes series here when yet another great finger spinner haphazardly said goodbye to the red-ball game when his team was also in the lurch. Graeme Swann was duly called a ‘coward’ and a ‘traitor’ by the British tabloids as he hurriedly departed Australia, perhaps wanting to be as far away as possible from England’s woeful demise in that fateful summer. Like Ashwin, Swann was also a useful lower-order batter and was one of the more senior members of that England side. Furthermore, at that point in his career had developed a reputation as an excellent front-line tweaker, having claimed some big scalps like Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke in multiple Ashes series, and so the expectations were high for him to deliver here as well. It honestly just makes me wonder.
The way India bowled in that final innings of the Sydney Test summed up everything that was going wrong for them this summer. Without Bumrah’s magnificence, they displayed who they truly were this time around – a soft underbelly of directionless, distracted, disunified and disillusioned team of individuals. With such a spicy, minefield of a pitch at their disposal to rattle the Aussies in their seemingly treacherous run chase of 162, why on earth would you bowl so waywardly with no plan, no intent or proper thought on defending such a low score? It only confirmed to me that something internal was seeping into the external, and it was on full show in that terrible final session for the visitors.
Jasprit Bumrah and Gautam Gambhir (Photo by Ayush Kumar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
And lastly, Jasprit Bumrah. What an absolute specimen of a bowler he has become. He is the heartbeat of this Indian team. Like an ambulance driver rushing to collect patients at multiple emergency crash sites, Jasprit Bumrah has been the lone paramedic for his team, swooping in to clean up the mess created by his sloppy teammates, and not once did he break a sweat or complain as he bowled himself to the ground. There was no one else I could see collecting that Player of the Series award – Travis Head was a close contender, but it was Bumrah who always stood up and kept his side (and the series) competitive when no one else could. As far as building statues goes, Bumrah deserves an entire temple.
Nuwan Ranasinghehttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/01/07/indias-problems-run-deeper-than-this-test-series-and-in-sydney-it-finally-showed/India’s problems run deeper than this Test series and in Sydney it finally showed
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