India vs Australia: Australia hand India their first Test defeat at home since 2021

The writing was on the wall but Australia’s crushing 9-wicket win in the Indore Test highlighted how badly India were outplayed in conditions that should have been bossed by the home team.

Instead, the Aussies, reeling from the massive defeats in Nagpur and Delhi, took just a little over two days to script one of the most remarkable victories by a visiting team on Indian soil.

Australia needed only 76 to win the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but after play on the second day, Umesh Yadav said India had a good enough chance. As you would expect, there was hope for an Indian miracle. A win in Indore would have sealed a World Test Championship final for either team – at the end, it was Australia who slotted into that position with some sensational cricket on a pitch that had rattled even India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour.

On Friday, R Ashwin removed Usman Khawaja off the second ball of the innings but that was all the success India would have as Australia cruised to victory courtesy of Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne. On the second morning of the Test, India had given themselves a glimmer of hope when Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin struck thrice each to trigger a great Australian collapse.

Maybe that had stayed on in the minds of the optimists, but rarely have teams won Test matches after being bundled out for 109 and then conceding an 88-run lead on pitches that look like the one did in Indore.

Besides, there were so many other factors to ponder over. India’s decision to bat on that pitch? Should they have instead let Australia bat and unleashed their spinners early? What about India’s stroke play? Rohit Sharma played a ridiculous shot in the first innings, and Shubman Gill was equally irresponsible in the second innings.

Virat Kohli just looked good playing certain shots without any significant contributions, while Cheteshwar Pujara continued to disappoint before a defiant half-century that would, anyway, count for little. Shreyas Iyer played a cameo in the second innings but again, there was little to take away from his performance.

The alarm bells should have been ringing. The Indian lower-order of R Jadeja, R Ashwin and A Patel, have consistently pulled India out of trouble over the last two years. And as it happened, the trio had a bad couple of days with the bat.

In Indore, India’s batsmen were once again exposed against spin. This was a rare Test defeat for India at home. England (2012 and 2021) and Australia (2017 and 2023) are the only teams to have won Tests in India over the last 11 years. That’s saying something of India’s domination at home but the question is: how long would the batters be shielded by two world-class spinners and a talented understudy?

Rishabh Pant’s absence left a glaring hole that India were unable to fill. India are still 2-1 ahead in the series but the inability of their star batsmen to play quality spin is worrying. It was the same story in Pune in 2017 and then again in Chennai in 2021 and Indore in 2023.

There were worrying signs in Nagpur and Delhi too, but those failures were overshadowed by a brilliant Rohit Sharma hundred and some spectacular innings from Jadeja, Axar and Ashwin.

Australia took a little over 48 hours to complete a comprehensive victory after being hammered within three days in the previous two Tests. India, meanwhile, will have a lot of questions to answer before they move to Ahmedabad for the final match of the series.