NEW DELHI: The blockbuster Border-Gavaskar Trophy that had some of the finest nerve-wrecking, edge-of-the-seat action for close to one and a half months came to a superb conclusion on Sunday in Sydney.
In the battle of the two giants — India and Australia — the hosts, finally ended India’s dominance Down Under and secured the series with a 3-1 score-line, laying hands on the trophy for the first time in 10 years.
For India, the defeat in the series came after they had twice beaten Australia in their own backyard on the 2018/19 and 2020/21 tours.
But what went wrong for India this time around?
The selection committee had named a strong 18-man squad and over the course of the tour, 16 of them went on to play at least one Test.
To go with that, Devdutt Padikkal, who was with India A side before the series began, too was parachuted and featured in the series opener in Perth in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma.
Yet, at the end, India stared at a 3-1 series loss.
And the biggest reason for India’s downfall in the series this time around was the horrendous outings by the batters.
There were only three occasions throughout the series when India crossed the 200-run mark.
The team, on occasions, even compromised on their bowling to boost their batting with the inclusion of all-rounders, yet failed to go big with the bat.
Two out-and-out batters — Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sarfaraz Khan — warmed the bench for the whole series.
But could they have made a difference?
Abhimanyu Easwaran
In the absence of Rohit Sharma for the first Test due to personal reasons, opener Abhimanyu Easwaran would have been the best choice to replace the skipper, at least for the first Test.
Before the start of the series, Easwaran was with the India A side Down Under as well.
But his outings against Australia A were pretty poor which resulted in the Indian management ignoring him for the BGT.
In the two A-games, Easwaran had scored 7, 12, 0 and 17 and that resulted in his non-inclusion.
As a matter of fact, Easwaran’s India A teammate Devdutt Padikkal was brought in and included in the XI that clearly showed that the team management did not have much faith in the opener.
Sarfaraz Khan
Battling poor form in the previous series, middle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan in India XI in Australia would have been a very bold call and the team management decided to go against that.
Barring the 150 in Bengaluru, Sarfaraz struggled against the Kiwis, scoring 0, 11, 9, 0 and 1 in India. Then after the first game, in the warm-up vs PM’s XI, he didn’t get much of a chance and scored just 1 run.
With Sarfaraz’ struggles against short-pitched deliveries known, the think tank was of the opinion to not use him in the pace-friendly Australian conditions.
However, with India going through a transition phase and the middle-order batters under scanner for their run rut, a punt on a youngster like Sarfaraz could have been taken.
Dhruv Jurel
Dhruv Jurel was the standout batter in one of the India A vs Australia A game, where he scored 80 and 68 and earned a place in the XI for the series opener in Perth.
But in the first Test, Jurel, like the others, struggled and scored 11 and 1.
Jurel was then benched for the remaining four matches despite Rishabh Pant not performing before the final Test.
With Pant not firing, there were also murmurs that Jurel might return for the final game but the management stuck with India’s first choice keeper and Jurel was forced to stay on the bench.
Tanush Kotian and the reserves
After India veteran R Ashwin bid adieu mid-series following the drawn third Test in Brisbane, in a like-for-like replacement Tanush Kotian joined the team but didn’t get a game in the BGT.
So was the case with the reserves — Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed — who never became a part of the squad for the entire BGT.
Despite the mounting workload on Jasprit Bumrah and performances not coming from his pace partners, the team management did not bring in the reserves and stuck to the original squad.
Out of the reserves, the non-inclusion of workhorse Mukesh Kumar was among big talking points throughout the series.