NEW DELHI: To say that Team India was outplayed by Australia in all the departments of the game in the World Test Championship final at The Oval won't be an understatement.
Things went wrong for the Rohit Sharma-led side right from the beginning. India won the toss and asked Australia to bat first looking at the overcast conditions, not worrying about the fickle English weather that changes so quickly.
And then the team selection. The top-ranked spinner in the world, the bowler who has the most wickets in the WTC cycle, Ravichandran Ashwin, was not selected in the playing XI, even though there were five left-handers in the Aussie batting line-up.
For the record, Ashwin has picked up 61 wickets in 13 Tests in the two-year cycle of the second WTC edition.
Conditions changed and The Oval became good for batting and India could never recover from the Aussie first innings onslaught with Travis Head and Steve Smith smashing hundreds.
Former India cricketers were obviously livid and slammed the team's performance.
India great Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at Virat Kohli on air. "He talks so much about how to win a match you need a long innings. How are you going to do that if you play a ball so far outside the off stump? The batting was in shambles today. It was just ridiculous what we saw. India have not lasted a session with that batting line-up. I mean, come on!"
Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted: "One technical observation I have of most Indian batters, is the keenness to get onto the front foot, to even short of length balls. These are balls Steve Smith, Kane Williamson & Joe Root play back to."
Speaking on TV to India coach Rahul Dravid, former India captain Sourav Ganguly noted some ordinary batting averages posted by India's top six.
Dravid admitted his side had not met their usual high standards.
"They (the batsmen) will agree this was not up to their standards," the coach said. "But these are the same batters who have won two Test series in Australia, and have won Test matches in England."
"We are working on it," he added. "Some of the wickets in this Test championship cycle have been quite challenging, but this was a good wicket. So the averages have fallen, but we admit that if we back our bowlers with runs they will win Tests for us."
1/10:Australia claim maiden World Test Championship title
AFP
2/10:Maiden WTC title
<p>India's poor show in ICC events continued as Australia grabbed their maiden World Test Championship title with a crushing 209-run victory. <br /></p>Getty Images
3/10:Another flop show
<p>Chasing a record 444 on the final day, India resumed at 164/3 on Day 5 but were bowled out for 234 in the first session. <br /></p>Getty Images
4/10:The wait continues
<p>This is now India's second defeat in successive WTC finals after losing to New Zealand in 2021 in the inaugural edition.<br /></p>AFP
5/10:India all out in first session on Day 5
<p>Pacer Scott Boland sparked a dramatic collapse as India lost the remaining seven wickets for 70 runs inside 24 overs before lunch.<br /></p>AP
6/10:The Boland damage
<p>Scott Boland did the initial damage with 2 wickets in an over, including the prize scalp of Virat Kohli (49). <br /></p>AFP
7/10:The twin-blow
<p>In the seventh over of the day, Kohli edged fast bowler Boland to a great catch at second slip by Steve Smith. Boland then got Ravindra Jadeja (0) a couple of balls later.<br /></p>AFP
8/10:The tail wrap up
<p>The highest wicket-taker for Australia in the second innings, Nathan Lyon (4/41) then mopped up the tail in a jiffy. <br /></p>Getty Images
9/10:The Head, Smith tons
<p>Australia were in charge of the Final from Day 1 with both player-of-the-match Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) firing tons in the total of 469.</p>Getty Images
10/10:The 173-run lead
<p>India were then bowled out for 296 in their first essay, giving away huge 173-run lead to Pat Cummins and co. <br /></p>AFPFormer India coach Ravi Shastri also criticised the shot selection of Indian top-order batters, who let down the team.
"What's amazed me though is the way that the pitch has behaved. Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara will be kicking themselves for playing the shots that they played. They were poor shots when they were batting beautifully," said Shastri.
The legendary Sachin Tendulkar found Ashwin's exclusion from India's playing XI baffling, as a spinner of his calibre doesn't need conducive conditions to be effective.
"India had to bat big in the first innings to stay in the game, but they couldn't. There were some good moments for Team India, but I fail to understand the exclusion of Ashwin in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world," Tendulkar tweeted on Sunday.
What surprised Tendulkar is the fact that he found it difficult to believe that a bowler of Ashwin's calibre can't be used in conditions which are seamer-friendly.
"Like I had mentioned before the match, skilful spinners don't always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters."
(With agencies inputs)
