Interesting phase of World Test Champion: Threats loom over India

By: Imran Yousafzai

The World Test Championship has entered a very interesting phase. The Indian team, which had been occupying the first position on the points table for a long time, has fallen to third position after losing to Australia. The Australian team has advanced to first place and the South African team is in second place. The Indian team, which is on a tour of Australia, was victorious in the first match of the Border-Gavaskar series despite the difficulties, after which it was likely that the return of Rohit Sharma to the team would further strengthen the Indian team, but this did not happen and the Indian batting line, considered the strongest in world cricket, proved to be a wall of sand in front of the Australian pace attack. Australia won the second Test by a huge margin of 10 wickets on the third day and took first position on the points table of the World Test Championship. In the first match of the series played in Perth, Jasprit Bumrah led the team in the absence of Rohit Sharma and there is no doubt that India’s speed star performed brilliantly and led his team to an extraordinary victory. The second Test of the series was played in Adelaide in which Rohit Sharma returned and it was likely that the captain’s return would strengthen the team, but nothing happened and Rohit Sharma could only score 9 runs in the two innings of the second Test. In the first innings, Scott Boland sent him to the pavilion for 3 runs, while in the second innings, captain Pat Cummins dismissed him for 6 runs. India’s decision to bat first after winning the toss in the Adelaide Test also did not prove beneficial. A light scuffle between India’s opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and Australia’s star bowler Mitchell Starc at the crease went viral on social media, in which Jaiswal mocked Starc’s speed and said, “Your ball comes very slowly.” However, this mockery hit Jaiswal hard and Starc proved his superiority by dismissing Jaiswal with the very first ball of the innings. India’s second wicket fell on 69 and after that, adding only 111 runs, the remaining 8 wickets also fell. India’s team was bundled out for 180 runs in 44.1 overs. Mitchell Starc bowled brilliantly and took 6 wickets for 48 runs. Pat Cummins and Scott Boland dismissed 2 players each. In reply, Australia scored 337 runs in the first innings, with Travis Head scoring 140 and Marnus Labuschagne scoring 64 runs. Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj took 4 wickets each. The Indian batting failed to impress in the second innings as well and the entire team was bowled out for 175 in 36.5 overs. This time Pat Cummins took 5, Scott Boland 3 and Mitchell Starc 2 wickets. The Indian team could only take an 18-run lead in the most important test match and Australia got an easy target of 19 runs to win, which was achieved without any loss in 3.2 overs. If we look at the performance of both the teams, India played just 81 overs in two innings and scored 355 runs while losing 20 wickets, on the other hand, Australia scored 356 runs in 90.5 overs and lost only 10 wickets. The victory in this match has put Australia at the first position on the points table of the World Test Championship, while South Africa is at the second position. The Indian team is at the third position. India have three remaining Test matches of the WTC 2023-2035 cycle and will have to win all three Test matches to play the WTC final. India can stay in the final race with a maximum of one draw and two must-wins as another defeat can knock the Indian team out of the final race. If India wins the next three matches and wins the Border-Gavaskar series 3-2, its WTC journey will end with a 58.77 PCT. On the other hand, India will also have to wait for Sri Lanka to win the three-match Test series between Sri Lanka and South Africa, otherwise South Africa can defeat Sri Lanka in all three Test matches and become the topper of the points table with a 69.44 PCT. Australia is likely to finish second because, in addition to the three Test matches against India, they also have a Two-Test series against Sri Lanka in January and February next year, in which a win could take them to second place on the points table and thus knock India out of the World Test Championship final.

(The analyst Imran Yousafzai is a senior journalist and sports analyst/anchors person)