The resurgent Australian team under Steve Smith’s captaincy defeated India at the third test match played between the two cricketing nations in the World Test Championship tournament by 9 wickets in the Holkar stadium in indore, Madhya Pradesh.
First things first, the pitch produced turners rarely seen in today’s cricket. Indian batters tried to hang on by their skins on the second day but Australian talismanic off- spinner Nathan Lyon cracked the whip out of the Indian batting line up with the sole exception being the ever dependent Cheteshwar Pujara. Australian legend Matthew Hayden described the pitch as an ‘ absolute desert’ with ‘ indiscriminate rough’. The pitch at Indore used for third Test has also been rated “poor” by the ICC with Holkar Stadium handed three demerit points. Sharp turns & variable bounce & a tad bit complacency on the part of Indian batters reduced India’s chances to post a significant target & with Australia needing just 76 runs to win, the bowlers had little chance to defend such a target. Subhman Gill, who replaced the KL Rahul after consistent failures on the part of the letter could do little justice to his selection. The ultra aggresive approach also cost the Indian batters dearly as wickets kept falling at regular intervals.
Nathan Lyon earned his second best test figures in the process handing Australia a famous victory. The pitch provided Indian bowlers some respite in the first innings with ultra sharp Ashwin who tried his best to contain Australia, being the only thing that turned out to be positive in a rather dismal show by our men in blue.
That comes to the final part, was India prepared for a ravaging turner? Did the almost 5° turn on a pitch justify the fair cricketing standards of how the game is being played? Did Indian batters turn complacent after back to back wins? Did the ICC take too tough a call to ourightly hand a ‘ poor’ tag to the Holkar pitch? Should the Indian team defend more? Do we need to prepare these turners for winning a match? Why wasn’t the Brisbane pitch where the ball kept flying which could have caused some serious injury handled demerit points?
With all said and done, its only for our men in blue to answer. Till then, lets keep our fingers crossed as india remains on the verge of playing another ICC Test Championship final.
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