India suffered a humiliating 146-run defeat in the second Test against Australia at Optus Stadium, Perth.
There was a lot of expectations from Team India as they embarked into the Perth Test against Australia after recording a historic 31-run victory in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval. However, Virat Kohli and company couldn’t build on the momentum and lost the second Test by a huge margin of 146 runs.
Apart from captain Kohli’s magnificent ton (123) and Ajinkya Rahane’s fifty (51) in the first innings, none of the Indian batsmen made any noteworthy contribution in the match.
Analysing India's defeat in Perth, legendary batsman Sourav Ganguly opened up about a text message that he wanted to send to Kohli during the second Test but couldn't. A message that might have helped Indian batsmen to tackle the Aussie bowlers, especially Nathan Lyon, in a better way.
“I had thought of sending a text to Kohli but I haven’t done it yet. I wanted to tell him that you shouldn’t give so many wickets to spinners outside the subcontinent. There is no doubt that Nathan Lyon is a great spinner but so were Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Graeme Swann," Ganguly told India TV.
“They have shown him too much respect by defending a lot of deliveries outside the off-stump. Instead, I feel they should attack him more and look to build towards at least a total in excess of 300-350,” he added.
Off-spinner Lyon bagged the Player-of-the-Match award for his eight-wicket haul in Perth. He picked up five scalps in the first innings and three in the second to derail India’s chase of 287 in the fourth innings.
Ganguly also took the Indian top order batsmen to task for their repeated failures Down Under. He pointed out how none of the batsmen barring Kohli and Pujara have shown any resistance against the Aussies bowlers.
“For all of India’s top order batsmen, this is not their first tour to Australia. They have been there before. Logically their game should improve over the years but from what we saw in Perth, it is difficult to say it has. Barring Kohli and (Cheteshwar) Pujara, none of them are making a lot of runs and this is not good for the team. If India have to win, they will have to do a lot more,” the former India skipper opined.
Melbourne will host the third Test between Australia and India from December 26.