Indore: Still in the whites, Rohit Sharma eased into the chair for the post-match presser in Indore. The cap was still on and the large-sized Oakley sat neatly on top of it. The skipper wiped some excess sweat off his neck and took a resting position before the interaction got underway. In the walk from the post-match presentation to the press conference, Rohit would have replayed the last three days in his mind over and over again. India wanted a raging turner, got a raging turner but lacked the skill and application with the bat for the customised track.
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There were long pauses in the initial few answers. He was still not done with the game in his head. A win here would have assured them a World Test Championship (WTC) final spot and allowed them freedom to try few things out in Ahmedabad but it wasn’t the case to be. Instead, India were completely outplayed. Out-batted, to be more precise, in the last two and a half days and fell in the trap which was engineered to perfection. Any away side would have got sweaty palms seeing the ball do as much as it did from the first few overs. Australia were supposed to bat second and fourth on this strip and seeing India struggle on Day 1 would have trickled a few nervous bones.
However, it seemed that a different Australian side had turned up in Indore. They were ready for the fight. They were determined to forget the first two Tests. They were convinced of possessing the skill set to succeed in these conditions. And as Steve Smith summed up during his presser, the ten-day break between the second and third Test did their mental state a world of good and allowed them to regroup and deliver in conditions which were extremely alien.
The rank-turners
For India, rank-turners continue to be a contentious at home. However, more than the conditions and the pitch, the batting surrender led to the Indore tragedy. Apart from Rohit’s hundred in Nagpur, the top-order didn’t do much in the first two Tests too but Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin covered the gaps. Asking them to do it again, on this strip, was probably being too ambitious.
In the series, Axar has faced more balls than Rohit, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. He has 185 runs from four innings and has looked stubborn in the middle. Indian batters didn’t look stubborn in the third Test. Peter Handscomb was stubborn in the pre-drinks session on Day 2, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne were stubborn on Day 1 but same can’t be said of the hosts – except Pujara in the second innings and Shreyas Iyer briefly.
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