ROBIN ROY
This article has been timely even as Team India has landed in Brisbane and the stage is set for the Boxing Day Test.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
However, is all well with Team India? Even as the tail-enders’ grittiness avoided a follow-on at the Gabba Test, is the team’s confidence on a high? Also, with Ravichandran Ashwin leaving the game halfway through the tournament, it does not reveal that everything is going our way.
Already whether Mohammed Shami would be included in the team was a million-dollar question and as if that was not enough. Ashwin’s sudden retirement left the team in wonders and critics lapped up the situation to make the grapevine work overtime.
Let’s look at how each department of Team India has performed so far with stats…
Though being criticised for his lack of control over line and length, Siraj has taken five and four wickets in the first two Tests in Perth
and Adelaide.
“…to a great extent if India relies too much on Bumrah. You have got to say that. Mohammed Siraj is a good foil, but he has to start getting five wickets in an innings. Otherwise, the load is being picked up mainly by Jasprit Bumrah. But if Siraj can pick up two, three wickets, keep on breaking partnerships, then he certainly helps Bumrah,” Sunil Gavaskar was quoted in an interview.
Commenting on Ashwin’s performance in the second Test, former spinner Piyush Chawla believed Ashwin controlled Australian batters and should have been in the
third Test.
Ashwin’s Test statistics this year include 47 wickets in 11 matches at an average of 27.25. He has three five-wicket hauls, with best figures
of 6/88.
While Washinton Sundar has taken 18 wickets in three matches at an average of 15.27. His best bowling figures are 7/59.
Ashwin had also scored a Test century this year but averaged only 18.23 with the bat, scoring 310 runs in 17 innings. On the other hand, Sundar had demonstrated greater batting consistency, scoring 122 runs in six innings across three Tests at an average of 30.50. His highest score is 38 not out.
However, all that is now past with Ashwin bowing out.
Regarding the batters, apart from one sterling innings by Jaiswal, the 22-year-old hasn’t quite been able to time it well. And only Subham Gill knows what’s wrong with him. While Gill has been excellent at home at no.3, his record outside Asia is a disappointment. Even in the ongoing BGT 2024 Test series in Australia, Gill’s scores have been 31, 28, and 1 in the two Tests he played.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra raised serious questions about Gill’s credentials when he said, “It’s been 16 innings where you haven’t crossed 40 outside Asia. You have been dismissed for single digits or early double digits many times. If your scores are like this and you bat at No. 3 for Team India in Test cricket, it’s a problem, and it will be discussed as well.”
Meanwhile, to add to the woes of Team India, captain Rohit Sharma sustained an injury during a practice session in Melbourne, raising doubts about his availability for the fourth Test at the MCG.
However, Rohit’s abysmal outing in the BGT was a matter of huge concern for
Team India.
Rohit, who missed the first Test in Perth, has scored 3, 6, and 10 in the three innings that he has played on this tour. According to cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, if Rohit fails to make a mark at the MCG and SCG, he won’t wait for the selectors to make the call.
Among the various concerns, one of the vital ones is star batter Virat Kohli’s dismal performance in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In three Tests, he could only score a century in the second innings at Perth. In 5 innings at BGT 2024-25, Kohli
126 runs.
How India fared in Boxing Day Tests
Team India has played nine Boxing Day Tests in total. Their first encounter in 1985 ended in a draw, followed by five consecutive defeats to Australia. In 2014, the match ended in a draw again, but in 2018, under captain Virat Kohli, India defeated Australia in the Boxing Day Test. India repeated this success in 2020, winning the Boxing Day Test for the second time in a row.
The Head’ache’
Australia’s leading run-scorer of the ongoing 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Travis Head has been in his all-time best perhaps in the three Tests so far. Head has scored 409 runs in five innings at an average of 81.80 and more importantly, at a strike rate of 94.24. His tally is almost double of the second-highest run-getter, and India’s chart leader, KL Rahul with 235 runs at 47, who has played one extra innings.
WHERE INDIA STANDS
India are placed third on the World Test Championship (WTC) table after Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep’s spirited tenth-wicket partnership helped India salvage a crucial draw in the rain-marred third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at the Gabba on Wednesday.
While their effort ensured that the five-match series remained evenly poised at 1-1, it also set the stage for a dramatic finish to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 qualification race.
Both India and Australia saw their WTC points percentage (PCT) dip; India to 55.88 per cent and Australia to 58.89 per cent. South Africa, meanwhile, with 63.33 PCT are in front of the standings and in the box seat to feature in the one-off Test in June 2025.
Before the adrenalin flows on Boxing Day, hold your breath and have fun as it’s celebration time… MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and hope Santa brings a win mantra for Team India
(Writer is Senior Journalist and former senior Associate Editor, O Heraldo, Goa)
