IND vs AUS: Jaiswal and Nitish impress, Siraj delivers and more positives for Team India despite Test series loss

Team India surrendered the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia Down Under, with the Pat Cummins-led side ending India’s decade of dominance with a 3-1 series triumph. India had previously lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2014-15 tour of Australia. Since then, India have won each of the four Test series the two teams have competed in, including their famous triumphs Down Under in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

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India had begun their 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign with a 295-run win in the first Test in Perth, but soon lost their way. Seniors like skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli let the team down, but there were still quite a few positives to takeaway for India from this series. We take a look at some of them:

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Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Kumar Reddy shine

Both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Kumar Reddy had entered unchartered territory when they stepped foot in Australia. Although Jaiswal has had prior experience of playing Tests, he was yet to play any form of international cricket in Australia. The 23-year-old opener excelled in Australia where the likes of Kohli and Rohit struggled. With 391 runs from five Tests (one century and two fifties), Jaiswal finished as India’s top run-getter in this series.

Reddy, on the other hand, also performed when it mattered the most, particularly in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, where his first-innings century led India’s late charge. Nitish finished with 298 runs and five wickets.

Rishabh Pant’s balanced approach in Sydney

During the fourth Test of the series in Melbourne, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar had slammed Rishabh Pant’s ultra-aggressive approach after the wicketkeeper-batter got dismissed while playing rash shots. Pant tweaked his approach in the fifth Test in Sydney, taking a bit more balanced route.

In the first innings in Sydney, Pant took several blows to his body and took on the bouncing deliveries quite bravely. He scored 40 balls off 98 deliveries in the first innings, before switching to his more natural kind of game in the second innings with a 29-ball fifty.

Mohammed Siraj impresses despite consistency concerns

Jasprit Bumrah, with 32 wickets, led the Indian bowling attack by example, but Mohammed Siraj too had his moments. He may not have been at his consistent best yet, but still managed to take 20 wickets from five Tests. That’s more than Mitchell Starc (20 wickets) and Josh Hazlewood (6 wickets), whose series was cut short due to an injury.

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Prasidh impresses in Sydney, Harshit also shows positive signs

He may have got only one opportunity in this series but pacer Prasidh Krishna made the most of it. His figures of 3/42 and 3/65 in the first and second innings respectively was pivotal due to the fact that India were missing the injured Jasprit Bumrah from the second day of the three-day Test. So, somebody had to step up and that somebody was the Karnataka pacer.

Another star who eventually shone earlier in the Test series was Harshit Rana, who took four wickets in Perth including 3/48 in the first innings. The pacer also impressed in the pink-ball warm-up match against Australia Prime Minister’s XI with figures of 4/44 but endured a wicketless run in the first innings of the Adelaide Test, where he conceded 86 runs. Despite his Adelaide horror show and being overlooked for the Tests that followed, Harshit has shown promising signs with a potential to become India’s next best multi-format bowler.