Jasprit Bumrah, sidelined by back spasms, watched from the bench as India struggled to defend a 162-run target in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25.
Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna bowled 21 consecutive overs but in vain.
The final day in Sydney summed up a tough six-week tour of Australia. While the visitor’s destitute batting performance headlined the middling tour, India’s team construction over the five games and its reluctance to play four fast bowlers had a major impact on the eventual 1-3 result.
Until last year, India always ensured that at least four specialist pacers were in the playing XI on its away tours even at the cost of a long tail – a trade-off that the team was willing to take since Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli began in 2015.
The Rahul Dravid-led management also continued the strategy. In Dravid’s last away Test assignment to South Africa in 2023-24, India played Bumrah, Siraj, Prasidh, Shardul Thakur, and R. Ashwin in the first Test; Mukesh Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja replaced Shardul and Ashwin in the second Test.
From 2021 to the end of South Africa’s tour in 2024, India’s third and fourth seamers combined to pick wickets at an average of 27.18 in away Tests, while the first two quicks averaged 24.94.
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Gautam Gambhir echoed a similar mindset at the beginning of his helm as a coach. “If a batsman makes a thousand runs, there is no guarantee that he will win the Test match. But if a bowler takes 20 wickets, there is a 99 per cent guarantee that he will win the Test match. In any format, bowlers win you the tournament,” Gambhir had said ahead of the New Zealand Test series in October.
However, during the recent visit to Australia, coach Gambhir’s first away Test tour, India designed its bowling attack around three specialist quicks alongside all-round options. While India did benefit from having Nitish Kumar Reddy bat at number eight, scoring 209 of his 298 runs at that position, it didn’t help that he was used sparingly with the ball; the seamer bowled just 7 per cent of the balls Indians delivered the entire series.
Bumrah led the bowling attack and Siraj was backed to partner him with the new ball but India kept changing its third quick: from Harshit Rana (first two Tests), to Akash Deep (3rd and 4th Test) and then Prasidh (5th Test).
India used as many as eight bowlers at bowling positions three or lower; they combined to pick 27 wickets at an average of 40.18. In contrast, Australia’s first change bowler, and the rest, claimed 43 wickets at an average of 25.27.
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Australia used four specialist bowlers: Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, and Josh Hazlewood/Scott Boland in each game.
For the first four matches, Mitchell Marsh operated as the fifth bowler. When the management realised his inability to do the holding job, it got Beau Webster, another seamer, to play in Sydney.
In India’s case, Nitish, Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Ashwin (for one game) were used more to give breaks to the two overworking quicks – Bumrah and Siraj, who bowled 52 per cent of the overs. Spinners Jadeja and Sundar combined to bowl 16 per cent of the overs, picking seven wickets in total.
Selecting two spin options in the playing XI was, in particular, a head-scratching decision given the conditions suited pacers across the five venues.
India’s struggle to pick wickets was on display during the second innings of the Melbourne Test. Rohit Sharma had to bring Bumrah after short gaps as the Australian lower order piled on runs.
The intensity of that fourth day eventually caught up three days later in Sydney. With Bumrah unable to bowl, the stand-in skipper Kohli could only rely on Siraj and Prasidh to make a match out of the game; out of 27 overs, the duo bowled 24 overs for four wickets, as Australia finally had its hands on the trophy after a decade-long gap.