Virat Kohli (left) walks back to pavillion after getting out in Adelaide on Saturday.
India’s first day/night overseas Test turned into a nightmare following team’s second innings collapse of 36, which forced them out of the game by the third afternoon of Adelaide Test against hosts Australia.
Starting the day with somewhat upper hand, Team India were having a lead of 62 runs in hand with likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane among others yet to come. However, what happened in the next half an hour, thanks to some fearsome bowling by Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, left the side stunned at 19/6. The entire top-order came tumbling down as a pack of cards while Aussies plan to bowl fuller and straight, with the seaming conditions in their favour, left India in chaos.
And cricketer-turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar didn’t back from mentioning that this was India’s worst batting performance in their rich 88-year cricket history.
“It is India’s worst batting performance in their 88 years of Test cricket,” Manjrekar wrote in his column for Hindustan Times. The 55-year-old retired cricketer further pointed out that of late India has struggled to deal with swing and seam, starting from earlier this year’s New Zealand series.
“t’s important to not look at 36 in isolation but at 165, 191,242,124, 244, and then at it. These are team totals in their last three Tests (two in New Zealand) when the ball moved. This is all India could muster, and they lost all three. So, 36 as a low score may be an aberration, but of late India have been incompetent as a batting unit when the ball has swung or seamed.”
