India’s struggles in Test cricket continued as they suffered their second successive series defeat.
India were outclassed by six wickets in the fifth and final Test at Sydney on Sunday as Australia clinched the five-match series 3-1.
India’s batting once again came undone on a lively pitch at the Sydney Cricket Ground as they were bowled out for under 200 in both innings.
The series laid bare the frailties in India’s batting line-up as a few seniors inched closer to the exit. While Ravichandran Ashwin retired mid-way into the series, Captain Rohit Sharma sat out of the last Test after struggling for runs and Virat Kohli had a series to forget with the bat.
Jasprit Bumrah emerged as the lone bright spot, with a record haul of 32 wickets but found little support from his bowling colleagues.
How India’s players rated in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series:
Rohit’s Test career came to an inglorious end after he became the first Indian captain to drop himself.
It was no surprise that the skipper saw the writing on the wall after a string of failures with the bat in the last few series.
He missed the opening Test in Perth which India won by 295 runs and his subsequent return to the playing XI in the second match completely upset the balance of the side.
He accommodated himself in the middle order in the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests, but failed to make an impact with scores of just 3, 6 and 10 in the three innings.
Despite his poor form, he gambled by opening in the fourth Test in Melbourne, pushing the in-form K L Rahul to No 3, once again disrupting the team combination. He managed just 12 runs in two innings at MCG, before he himself stepped aside for the fifth and final Test in Sydney following widespread calls for his axing.
His captaincy was also lacklustre as he was guilty of being too defensive and allowing the game to drift.
Rohit finished with 31 runs in five innings in the series — an embarrassing tally for a frontline batter as even bowlers Jasprit Bumrah (42 runs) and Akash Deep (38 runs) fared better than him.