Review: India v Australia BGT 2024-25 - Australia captalises on Indian shortcomings

 

The much awaited Border Gavaskar trophy 2024-25 finally is over with Australia regaining the same after 10 long years  by beating India 3-1 in the 5 match series . With the victory in the final test , Australia has also qualified for the 2nd successive year for the World test Championship final . They are the reigning world  test champions and now will play South Africa at Lords in June 2025 to defend their title .

The test series started brightly for the tourists as India surprised everyone by beating Australia at Perth in the 1st test courtesy Jasprit Bumrah bowling brilliance and Jaiswal's brilliant 2nd innings 100 . Australia after that slow start got back their bearings to beat India at Adelaide in the pink ball test courtesy fine bowling by their high class pace attack and Travis Head blazing century . 

Head created further headaches for India with another breathtaking 100 in the next test at the Gabba but several rain inturruptions during the test resulted in Australia 's victory march being halted and the teams reached Melbourne for the boxing day test with the series locked 1-1 . 

After 5 days of gruelling contest , Australia outplayed India on the final day to take the 2-1 lead in the series at MCG . The brilliance of Jaiswal & Bumrah were not enough as Cummins , Smith and the Aussie bowling attack rose to the occasion to script a great win . India now needed a win to retain the Border Gavaskar  trophy at Sydney but on a spicy pitch after two days of gruelling contest and the unfortunate Bumrah back injury ,  Aussies had too much in their tank to win at Sydney on day 3 and regain the Border Gavaskar trophy with a 3-1 series victory and also qualified for the WTC final .

It was a 5 test  contest between two vulnerable batting lineups containing several ageing superstars on both sides above 35. Both the teams boasted strong bowling attacks particularly the hosts and therefore as expected the series produced rare high scores with only one specialist  batter across both teams getting a 50 plus average in the series .

Australia were troubled the whole series by their fragile opening coombination . With Jasprit Bumrah bowling outstandingly in the whole series , the ageing Usman Khawaja struggled to survive Bumrah spells while Nathan McSweeney the debutant opener in the series followed suit till he was replaced by the more aggressive 19 year old teenager Sam Konstas who did manage to rattle Bumrah at MCG in the 1st innings . The middle order superstars , Labuschagne & Smith took time to get going before the mid of the series but Travis Head  was in breathtaking touch and his dazzling hundreds at Adelaide and Gabba set up the series for Australia. The Aussie lower order contributed at important times to thwart the Indian bowling . 

The Australian bowling attack was relentless with their lines and Hazlewood 's injury at the middle of the series brought Scott Boland into the XI that spelled more trouble for the Indian batting lineup as Boland was relentless with his lines that suffocated the Indian batters . 

Travis Head was the highest rungetter in the series with 448 runs at 56 average and 92 strike rate . He scored at breathtaking pace and changed the course of the matches many times.   Steve Smith who at times struggled with his fluency made 314 runs at 35 average and 2 tons including a matchwinning one at MCG . Marnus Labuschagne had a below par series with 232 runs at 26 average . He made some important runs but struggled with his technique frequently . Alex Carey (216 runs at 30 avg) occasionally made some lower order runs . Opener Usman Khawaja (184 runs at 20 avg) had a mediocre series and was worked over by Bumrah . While Sam Konstas (113 runs at 28 avg) had some success as a debutant in the last 2 tests , McSweeney (72 runs at 14 avg) had a tough time in the first two tests though contributed well at Adelaide . Batting all rounder Mitch Marsh (73 runs at 10 avg ) flopped in this series and  was replaced by the tall  Beau Webster  at Sydney who scored 57 & 39 not out at Sydney and took 1 wicket to cap off a great debut in a last test series win . Skipper Pat Cummins at times batted better than the specialists scoring 159 runs at 19.87 average and scored 49 & 41 at MCG in the series defining win . Cummins led the Australia bowling   with highest wicket tally of 25 wickets followed by Boland with 21 wickets at an astonishing 13 average. Starc played all 5 tests sometimes with niggle for his 18 scalps, Hazlewood took 6 wickets in 2 tests before injury put him out of the series . Nathan Lyon has a lesser role to play in this series due to more seaming  pitches and ended with 9 wickets 

The Indians struggled with chronic  batting issues which was the main reason why they lost the series . Yashasvi Jaiswal with 391 runs at 43 average was India's best batter by some distance . The 23 year old showed good technique and exhibited wide range of shots but needs to curb his youthful exuberance at times .He would have learnt a lot from this tour . Jaiswal proved that he belonged to the big stage . The other opener , the more experienced KL Rahul (276 runs at 31 avg) batted very well in the first 3 tests showing great technique and skills in leaving balls outside the channel . However his runs dried up towards the  last part of the series and his  changes of batting spot in the final two tests didnt help him or India .

India's middle order totally flopped in this series with Shubman Gill  (93 runs at 19 avg) , Virat Kohli ( 190 runs at 23 avg ) , skipper Rohit Sharma (31 runs at 6.50 avg)  struggling for runs . Gill failed to improve his mediocre overseas record , Rohit was woefully out of form and thus stepped down from the final test and Kohli since his Perth century had severe technical issues outside off stump with no backfoot game on the off side . His constant front foot technique made him struggle to deal with slightly short of good length deliveries and he repeatedly edged to slips    for his identical dismissals throughout the series . Kohli's decline has costed India big time . 

Much was expected from Rishabh Pant after his past exploits in Australia but this time his bat remained subdued (255 runs at 28 avg) . Pant had many starts but could not play that impact innings till in his final knock of the tour when he scored a breathtaking 61 in 33 balls at SCG and nearly threatened to take the game away from Australia. His keeping was average . 

The two spin allrounders Jadeja (135 runs at 27 avg , 4 wkts) & Sundar ( 114 runs at 23 avg , 3 wkts ) had below par series . Both played one inninngs of note and had little offer from the pitch to have an impact with their bowling . Ashwin (29 runs and 1 wkt) played at Adelaide without much impact and then announced his sudden retirement before the 3rd test which did not do any wonders for India's chances in the series .

 

The only spark  in a failing middle and lower order batting was provided from an unlikely source . 22 year old Nitish Reddy's selection was a contentious one but he showed great batting skills with proper technique . He scored a dazzling century at Melbourne and totalled an impressive 298 runs at 37 average for a batting all rounder showing  a wide array of strokes  . He took 5 wickets with his useful medium pace  though his bowling is still a work in progress . 

In the bowling India definitely missed Mohammed Shami in this series but Jasprit Bumrah  with 32 wickets in 5 tests at 13 average was exeptional . He was a terror to the Aussie batters and looked like getting wickets whenever he came to bowl . His pace , accuracy , hostility prompted many experts to rank him amongst the  all time greats . Bumrah's bowling was one of the highlights of the series and he deservingly won the player of the series. Without Bumrah , this test series would have been hopelessly onesided . 

Mohammed Siraj after some struggles ended the series on a personal high note with 20 wickets at 31 average  . Prasidh Krishna played in the final test and took 6 wickes while Akashdeep ( 5 wickets ) and Harshit Rana ( 4 wickets ) bowled well in spells with limited success . 

The difference between the two teams in the bowling was that Australia had a great all round pace attack with every bowler sustaining the pressure on the opposition while India failed to sustain pressure on the opposition batting after Bumrah finished his spells .

Thus it was a very rivetting test series and although Australia finaly won it 3-1 ,  had India grabbed their chances better at different crucial moments of the series ,  the result could well have gone the other way but Australia finally proved that they were a better all round  team .