 "India skipper Rohit Sharma wears a dejected look during the post-match presentation ceremony following his team's 10-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in Adelaide. AP")
India skipper Rohit Sharma lamented his team’s inability to capitalise on opportunities in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide as Australia thrashed the visitors by 10 wickets in a little over two days to level the five-Test series 1-1 with three games to follow. India, who had gone 1-0 up with a 295-run victory in Perth, were bundled out for 175 in the morning session of Day 3, leaving the Aussies just 19 runs for a series-leveling win.
Australian openers Nathan McSweeney (10 not out) and Usman Khawaja (9 not out) chased down the modest target in just 3.2 overs to ensure the two teams travelled to Brisbane on an even footing.
“Disappointing week for us, we didn’t play well enough to win the game and Australia played better than us. There were times in the game where we could have grabbed those opportunities but we failed to do that and that cost us the game,” Rohit, who had a disappointing time in Adelaide as batter as well as captain, said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
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Rohit added that the team will focus on the things that went right for them in the series opener at Perth’s Optus Stadium as they aim to regain the lead in the third Test at the ‘Gabba’ in Brisbane.
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More Shorts“We are quite looking forward to it (Gabba Test), there’s not much time in between as well. We want to go out there and think about what we did right in Perth and what we did last time when we were here. Some really good memories there, hopefully we understand the challenges of every Test match. We want to start well and play well,” Rohit added.
Australian skipper Cummins meanwhile, added that the team did not let the heavy defeat in Perth affect their confidence and believed they could come up with a similar response in Adelaide. The 295-run drubbing in Perth led a barrage of criticism as well as rumours of a rift within the Australian camp.
Cummins, however, said there wasn’t much “noise” within the team ahead of the pink-ball Test, which translated to a clinical performance with bat as well as with ball.
“Great week, knew we were far away from the team we want to be in Perth. This is back to how we want to play. I was happy, wasn’t too upset with how I bowled in Perth, felt really good this week and good to get a few wickets. Amazing, never that much noise within the group, we know what a good unit we are,” Cummins, who collected 5/57 to bowl India out for 175 in their second innings, said after his team’s victory.
The third Test gets underway at The Gabba on Saturday, 14 December, with the Indians hoping to return to winning ways at the venue where they had pulled off a thrilling three-wicket victory to complete an emphatic 2-1 series victory in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.