It turned out to be a forgettable day on Sunday for Indian cricket as each of the three national teams -- senior men’s, women’s and Under-19 men’s sides -- suffered humiliating defeats in their respective games.
While the Rohit Sharma-led side suffered a 10-wicket defeat against Australia in the second Test of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Adelaide, the Indian women lost by a huge margin of 122 runs against Australia in the second ODI to hand their rivals a 2-0 lead in the three-game series in Brisbane.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is now levelled at 1-1 after India won the series opener in Perth by 295 runs. The third Test will be played in Brisbane from December 14.
It was a tale of two shoddy batting efforts with the two senior-most players Rohit and Kohli looking well past their best. Jasprit Bumrah gave it all but lacked a potent bowling partner at the other end.
For Rohit Sharma, things are getting increasingly difficult as he now has lost the last four Tests that he has captained.
In his last six Test matches, he has batted in 12 innings with just one half-century in Bengaluru. The only other innings where he crossed 20-run mark is the 11-ball-23 cameo in Kanpur against Bangladesh.
If one looks at the pattern of 37-year-old Rohit’s dismissals, it is very similar to Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Virender Sehwag’s way og getting out at the end of their careers.
These three were gifted with exceptional hand-eye co-ordination where they picked length at ease during their prime and reacted accordingly.
Now with reflexes slowing down, the reaction to the length is a split second slower and the way Rana, Taskin Ahmed, Tim Southee and now Pat Cummins have squared him, it speaks volumes about where he is going wrong.
He is still trying to cover the line of his deliveries but wrong judgement of length means is causing trouble. Number six wouldn’t solve his issues and he needs to again bat in top three.
For Virat Kohli, the hundred at Perth now seems like “buffet runs” which came easily after KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 201 runs and by the time, he came in, India were ahead by 300 runs and the contest was as good as dead. To his credit, he hung in there for a 100 but it was tired attack that he belted to signal end of a prolonged lean patch.
His problems with the fourth stump line has persisted since James Anderson exposed it in 2014.
The 26-year-old Kohli, back then, worked hard and managed around his technical deficiency of edging behind stumps. He would stand closer to off-stump to cover the line but at 36, the movements have slowed and the effects are showing.
If India need to be competitive in the remainder of the series, the two veterans need to figure out how to get over the slump or it might just be too late.
If India had to pull off a coup, it needed Rishabh Pant’s (28) excellence but Starc, the undisputed ‘OG’ of ‘pink ball’ Tests with 74 victims, bowled a delivery on length which the Indian batter jabbed at without pressing forward fully.
If that was not enough, the Indian Under-19 side lost by 59 runs against Bangladesh in the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup in Dubai.
Chasing a paltry 199, title favourites India were shot out for a mere 139 in 35.2 overs by the defending champions Bangladesh in the summit clash to lift the Under-19 Asia Cup trophy.
The batters could not capitalise on the good job done by the bowlers as India suffered a massive 59-run defeat to Bangladesh in the low-scoring U19 Asia Cup title clash, here Sunday.,
After India produced a fine performance with the ball to keep Bangladesh to a mere 198 in 49.1 overs, it looked like the job was half done since the batters had played their roles to perfection since defeat in the tournament-opener to Pakistan.
However, in the crunch final, India lost wickets in a flurry on two occasions which broke the back of their chase, with Bangladesh bowlers and fielders doing their part well in exerting further pressure.
Chasing 199, India were bundled out for 139 in 35.2 overs as none of their specialist batters could play an impact knock, including the youngest IPL star Vaibhav Suryavanshi who managed a mere 9 (7 balls, 2 fours).
India suffered early blows in form of Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre (1) to stumble to 24 for two inside five overs.
With the summit clash placed precariously, Bangladesh edged ahead by keeping the rest of the Indian batters largely quiet, drying up the boundaries and even the singles.
C Andre Siddarth’s (20 off 35 balls) charge was ended by Rizan Hossan in the 12th over, which was another crucial point in the game as the balance tilted heavily in favour of Bangladesh.
But it was Iqbal Hossain Emon who made the most of the situation as he snaffled three vital wickets to severely dent India’s hopes, accounting for KP Karthikeya (21), Nikhil Kumar (0) and Harvansh Pangalia (6) in quick succession.
Mohamed Amaan resisted for long, scoring a 65-ball 26 but his effort and Hardik Raj’s late 21-ball 24 also was not enough for India to turn the tables. The end came swiftly for India as Azizul Hakim took 3/8 from his 2.2 overs towards the end.
Earlier in the first half, Rizan Hossain’s 47, Mohammad Shihab James’ 40 and Farid Hasan’s 39 proved to be the difference in a contest wherein batters mostly struggled for fluency in the middle.
India dominated the Bangladeshi batters for the entirety of the first half as they could only get near the 200-run mark while consuming most of their allotted overs.
Yudhajit Guha (2/29) was the pick among the performers from India as Chetan Sharma (2/48) and Raj (2/41) also chipped in with a couple of wickets each.
Kiran Chormale returned a measly 7-0-19-1 while Karthikeya (1/37) and Mhatre (1/9) also chipped in with a wicket each.
Meanwhile, in the second Women’s ODI against Australia, India were no match to the hosts and were bowled out for 249 in 44.5 overs.
Opener Richa Ghosh was the top-scorer who took 72 balls for her 54, while the likes of Jemimah Rodrigues (43) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (38) failed to convert their starts.
Minnu Mani waged a lone battle with 45-ball unbeaten 46 but it proved insufficient.
Annabel Sutherland was the destroyer-in-chief with 4/38 in 8.5 overs.
Australia had won the opening ODI by five wickets. The final match of the series is slated for Wednesday at WACA.